Nikon will raise prices on its cameras and imaging products in the United States starting June 23, citing President Donald Trump's tariffs on Chinese-made goods as the reason for what the company calls a "necessary price adjustment." The Japanese camera maker joins a growing list of photography equipment manufacturers implementing price increases, including Canon, Sony, Leica, and lens maker Sigma. Nikon told investors the tariffs could slash its profits by 10 billion yen ($70 million) in the upcoming fiscal year, though the company has not disclosed which specific products will see increases or by how much prices will rise.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://slashdot.org/story/25/05/27/0356237/nikon-to-raise-camera-prices-in-the-us-because-of-tariffs?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

California's population grew 0.6% in 2024, adding nearly 250,000 residents to reach 39.43 million, according to Census Bureau estimates. The growth came entirely from a rebound in international immigration, which surged to over 300,000 people after plunging to 44,000 during the pandemic's worst year.

Without immigration, the state would have shrunk significantly as domestic migration remained negative. The H-1B visa program alone brought nearly 79,000 skilled workers to California in 2024. Since 2010, California has added 2.7 million immigrants, with half coming from Asia and slightly more than a third from Latin America. The immigration-dependent growth model puts California at particular risk from potential federal policy changes, as more than a quarter of its population is foreign-born -- the highest share nationwide.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/05/27/0414218/immigration-is-the-only-thing-propping-up-californias-population?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

The European Commission warned Chinese e-tailer SHEIN on Monday that it must address multiple consumer law violations or face fines across EU member states. Regulators found SHEIN's website displayed fake discounts not based on actual prior prices, used pressure-selling tactics with false purchase deadlines, provided misleading information about consumer return rights, made deceptive sustainability claims, and hid contact details from customers. SHEIN has one month to respond to the findings and propose corrective measures, adding regulatory pressure to a company already facing US tariff challenges despite generating an estimated $38 billion in revenue last year.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://slashdot.org/story/25/05/27/0737253/europe-warns-giant-e-tailer-to-stop-cheating-consumers-or-face-its-wrath?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

President Trump's threat of a 25% tariff on smartphone imports including iPhones would not provide enough economic incentive for Apple to relocate US-bound iPhone production to domestic facilities, according to a new Morgan Stanley note viewed by Slashdot. The tariff threat, announced Friday via social media, appeared to target Apple's recent shift of iPhone production from China to India through its contract manufacturing partners.

Morgan Stanley analysts estimate that establishing US iPhone production would require a minimum of two years and several billion dollars to build multiple greenfield assembly facilities, with a trained workforce exceeding 100,000 workers during peak seasons. More significantly, the firm calculates that a US-produced iPhone would cost 35% more than current China or India production, primarily due to higher labor costs and the need to import 25% of iPhone components from China under existing 30% tariffs. By contrast, Apple could offset a 25% import tariff by raising global iPhone prices just 4-6%, making domestic production economically unviable.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://apple.slashdot.org/story/25/05/27/127201/25-iphone-tariff-insufficient-to-drive-us-production-shift-morgan-stanley-says?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

The Browser Company has ceased the active development of its Arc browser to focus on Dia, a new AI-powered browser currently in alpha testing, the company said Tuesday. In a lengthy letter to users, CEO Josh Miller said the startup should have stopped working on Arc "a year earlier," noting data showing the browser suffered from a "novelty tax" problem where users found it too different to adopt widely.

Arc struggled with low feature adoption -- only 5.52% of daily active users regularly used multiple Spaces, while 4.17% used Live Folders. The company will continue maintenance updates for Arc but won't add new features. Arc also won't open-source the browser because it relies on proprietary infrastructure called ADK (Arc Development Kit) that remains core to the company's value.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://it.slashdot.org/story/25/05/27/141246/browser-company-abandons-arc-for-ai-powered-successor?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

More than 50 years after its debut, Uno has achieved unprecedented popularity among adults, but its resurgence is creating problems and confusions as players disagree on fundamental rules. WSJ, in a fun story [non-paywalled source]: Think politics divides? Try mixing competitors with different views on stacking "action" cards, or getting everyone to agree on the true power of the Wild card. And nobody can seem to decide whether staples of the game of their youth -- like mandating players yell "Uno!" when they have one card left -- are socially acceptable at a bar with strangers. Mattel has responded by actively settling rule debates on social media, definitively stating that stacking Draw 2 cards is prohibited, while simultaneously embracing the game's divisive nature through marketing campaigns. The company's "Show 'Em No Mercy" variant, featuring more aggressive rules, became the second-best-selling card game in the United States last year according to research firm Circana, trailing only classic Uno itself.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://entertainment.slashdot.org/story/25/05/27/1352205/everybodys-mad-about-uno?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

German sportswear giant Adidas disclosed a data breach after attackers hacked a customer service provider and stole some customers' data. From a report: "adidas recently became aware that an unauthorized external party obtained certain consumer data through a third-party customer service provider," the company said. "We immediately took steps to contain the incident and launched a comprehensive investigation, collaborating with leading information security experts."

Adidas added that the stolen information did not include the affected customers' payment-related information or passwords, as the threat actors behind the breach only gained access to contact. The company has also notified the relevant authorities regarding this security incident and will alert those affected by the data breach.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://yro.slashdot.org/story/25/05/27/1430238/adidas-warns-of-data-breach-after-customer-service-provider-hack?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Researchers are developing techniques to genetically modify cancer-fighting immune cells directly inside patients rather than in expensive laboratory facilities, potentially making CAR-T therapy accessible to far more people.

Current CAR-T treatments require removing a patient's T cells, shipping them to specialized facilities for genetic engineering, then returning them weeks later at costs around $500,000 per dose. The new "in vivo" approaches use viral vectors or RNA-loaded nanoparticles to deliver genetic instructions directly to T cells circulating in the bloodstream, which could reduce costs by an order of magnitude. Companies including Capstan Therapeutics, co-founded by Nobel laureates, and AstraZeneca-backed EsoBiotec have launched early human trials. While only about 200 US centers currently offer traditional CAR-T therapy, the approach could make the powerful treatment available on demand like conventional drugs.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://science.slashdot.org/story/25/05/27/1532255/cancer-fighting-immune-cells-could-soon-be-engineered-inside-our-bodies?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader shares a report: More than 2% of Americans are taking the blockbuster class of GLP-1 drugs for overweight or obesity, up nearly 600% over six years, according to a report from FAIR Health given to Axios first. The data from FAIR Health's repository of over 51 billion commercial healthcare claim records shows the explosion in use of the drugs specifically for weight loss -- roughly half of all users.

In all, roughly 4% of Americans were taking GLP-1 drugs in 2024 for either overweight, obesity or Type 2 diabetes (their original approved use). The data shows Novo Nordisk's Ozempic is still by far the most commonly taken GLP-1, followed by Eli Lilly's Mounjaro. The percentage of adults who were prescribed a GLP-1 drug but did not have bariatric surgery increased from 2.5% in 2019 to 11.2% in 2024 while the the percentage of adult patients who had bariatric surgery decreased 41.8%.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://science.slashdot.org/story/25/05/27/1633220/glp-1-drug-use-surges-600-as-2-of-americans-take-weight-loss-medications?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Multiple readers shared the following report about the executive departures at CISA: Virtually all of the top officials at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) have departed the agency or will do so this month, according to an email obtained by Cybersecurity Dive, further widening a growing void in expertise and leadership at the government's lead cyber defense force at a time when tensions with foreign adversaries are escalating.

Five of CISA's six operational divisions and six of its 10 regional offices will have lost top leaders by the end of the month, the agency's new deputy director, Madhu Gottumukkala, informed employees in an email on Thursday. [...] The exits of these leaders could undermine the efficiency and strategic clarity of CISA's partnerships with critical infrastructure operators, private security firms, foreign allies, state governments and local emergency managers, experts say.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/05/27/1653235/cisa-loses-nearly-all-top-officials?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Bloomberg's editorial board warned Tuesday that AI has created an "untenable situation" in higher education where students routinely outsource homework to chatbots while professors struggle to distinguish computer-generated work from human writing. The editorial described a cycle where assignments that once required days of research can now be completed in minutes through AI prompts, leaving students who still do their own work looking inferior to peers who rely on technology.

The board said that professors have begun using AI tools themselves to evaluate student assignments, creating what it called a scenario of "computers grading papers written by computers, students and professors idly observing, and parents paying tens of thousands of dollars a year for the privilege."

The editorial argued that widespread AI use in coursework undermines the broader educational mission of developing critical thinking skills and character formation, particularly in humanities subjects. Bloomberg's board recommended that colleges establish clearer policies on acceptable AI use, increase in-class assessments including oral exams, and implement stronger honor codes with defined consequences for violations.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/05/27/1728228/ai-role-in-college-brings-education-closer-to-a-crisis-point?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Marvel Entertainment and DC Comics have announced their first crossover event since 2003's JLA/Avengers, featuring Deadpool and Batman in dual one-shot publications launching later this year. Deadpool/Batman one-shot launches September 17 and follows Wade Wilson hired for a Gotham City job that puts him against Batman.

DC's Batman/Deadpool counterpart launches in November. Both publications will include additional "backup adventures" featuring other character matchups, though creative teams for those remain unannounced. The crossover required extensive coordination between the companies' editorial schedules, which typically plan two to three years in advance.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://entertainment.slashdot.org/story/25/05/27/1737246/marvel-and-dc-announce-first-comic-crossover-in-22-years-with-deadpool-batman-pairing?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed an online child safety bill, bucking a lobbying push from big tech companies that included a personal phone call from from Apple CEO Tim Cook. From a report: The measure requires app stores to verify users' ages and secure parental approval before minors can download most apps or make in-app purchases. The bill drew fire from app store operators such as Google and Apple, which has argued that the legislation threatens the privacy of all users.

The bill was a big enough priority for Apple that Cook called Abbott to emphasize the company's opposition to it, said a person familiar with their discussion, which was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://apple.slashdot.org/story/25/05/27/1817225/texas-adopts-online-child-safety-bill-opposed-by-apples-ceo?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader shares a report: Earlier today, Panasonic announced refreshed models of its long-established Let's Note laptop series. However, for the first time in its history, we have a Let's Note portable that doesn't have a VGA port. According to a report by Nikkei Japan, this is probably the beginning of the end for laptops sporting VGA output, with "other companies to follow suit."

A number of factors have precipitated Panasonic's removal of the venerable VGA port. The Nikkei report highlights the strong competition from HDMI, which can simultaneously transmit audio. We also see that the new Panasonic Let's Note CF-SC6 models feature a pair of Thunderbolt 4 ports, which can also be used for video out. That's three separate ports remaining on the Let's Note to drive external displays.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://it.slashdot.org/story/25/05/27/1824200/panasonics-new-laptops-could-be-the-final-death-knell-for-the-humble-vga-port?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

A Qualcomm-commissioned study found that Apple's inaugural C1 modem, debuting in the iPhone 16e, significantly underperformed compared to Qualcomm-powered Android devices in challenging network conditions. The research by Cellular Insights tested devices on T-Mobile's 5G network in New York City, where Android phones achieved download speeds up to 35% faster and upload speeds up to 91% quicker than the iPhone 16e.

The performance gap widened when networks were congested or devices operated farther from cell towers -- precisely the scenarios where next-generation modems should excel, according to the report. The iPhone 16e became "noticeably hot to touch and exhibited aggressive screen dimming within just two-minute test intervals" during testing. This study arrives as Apple attempts to reduce its dependence on Qualcomm, which has historically provided modems for the entire iPhone lineup and represents roughly 20% of Qualcomm's revenue.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://mobile.slashdot.org/story/25/05/27/1747254/qualcomm-funded-study-finds-qualcomms-modems-outperform-apples-c1-chip-in-real-world-tests?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes a report : Washington is joining a growing list of states trying to tear down barriers for consumers who want to repair their electronics rather than buy new ones. Gov. Bob Ferguson last week signed the state's new "Right to Repair" policy, House Bill 1483, into law. It was a yearslong effort to get the law approved. "This is a win for every person in Washington state," said the bill's prime sponsor, Rep. Mia Gregerson, D-SeaTac.

In 2021, the Federal Trade Commission reported that consumers with broken electronics don't have much choice but to replace them because repairs require specialized tools, unique parts and inaccessible proprietary software. And those restrictions, the FTC found, disproportionately burden communities of color and low-income communities. Some companies engage in a practice called "parts pairing" that can make replacing parts of a device impossible. Washington's new law would largely outlaw this tactic.

Starting Jan. 1, 2026, the law will require manufacturers to make tools, parts and documentation needed for diagnostics and maintenance available to independent repair businesses. The requirement applies to digital electronics, like computers, cellphones and appliances, sold in Washington after July 1, 2021. Manufacturers won't be able to use parts that inhibit repairs. The state attorney general's office could enforce violations of the new law under the Consumer Protection Act.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/25/05/27/2054248/washington-consumers-will-gain-right-to-repair-cellphones-other-electronics?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

OnePlus is replacing its iconic Alert Slider with a new customizable "Plus Key" on the upcoming OnePlus 13s, which launches the new AI Plus Mind feature that lets users capture and search content found on screen. This update is part of a broader AI push for its devices that includes tools like AI VoiceScribe for call summaries, AI Translation for multi-modal language support, and AI Best Face 2.0 for photo corrections. Engadget reports: What AI Plus Mind does is save relevant content to a dedicated Mind Space, where users can browse various information that they've saved. Users can then search for the detail they want to find using natural language queries. Both the Plus Key and the AI Plus Mind will debut on the OnePlus 13s in Asia. AI Plus Mind will roll out to the rest of the OnePlus 13 Series devices through a future software update, while all future OnePlus phone will come with the new physical key. Notably, the new button and feature bear similarities to Nothing's physical Essential Key that can also save information inside the Essential Space app. Nothing was founded by Carl Pei who co-founded OnePlus.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://mobile.slashdot.org/story/25/05/27/2059206/oneplus-is-replacing-its-alert-slider-with-an-ai-button?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

After a year of rumors, Salesforce has officially acquired cloud data management firm Informatica in an $8 billion equity deal. "Under the terms of the deal, Salesforce will pay $25 in cash per share for Informatica's Class A and Class B-1 common stock, adjusting for its prior investment in the company," notes TechCrunch. From the report: Informatica was founded in 1993 and works with more than 5,000 customers across more than 100 countries. The company had a $7.1 billion market cap at the time of publication. This acquisition will help bolster Salesforce's agentic AI ambitions, the company's press release stated, by giving the company more data infrastructure and governance to help its AI agents run more "safely, responsibly, and at scale across the modern enterprise." "Together, we'll supercharge Agentforce, Data Cloud, Tableau, MuleSoft, and Customer 360, enabling autonomous agents to act with intelligence, context, and confidence across every enterprise," Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff said in the press release. "This is a transformational step in delivering enterprise-grade AI that is safe, responsible, and deeply integrated with the world's data."

[ Read more of this story ]( https://slashdot.org/story/25/05/27/215215/salesforce-acquires-informatica-for-8-billion?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: For millions of music fans, the most controversial app ban of the past year was not the brief TikTok outage but the ongoing delisting of Musi from Apple's App Store. Those users are holding out hope that Musi can defeat Apple in court and soon be reinstated. However, rather than coming to any sort of resolution, that court fight has intensified over the past month, with both sides now seeking sanctions, TorrentFreak reported. [...] For Musi, the App Store removal came as an existential threat, prompting a lawsuit after Musi's attempts to work out the dispute with Apple outside of court failed. The music-streaming app has alleged that the Apple ban did not come at YouTube's request but at the request of Apple's apparent music industry friends who allegedly asked Apple to find a way to get the app removed -- prompting Apple to push YouTube to re-open a supposedly resolved complaint.

In a court filing, Apple claimed that this "conspiracy theory," as well as other "baseless" claims, were "false and misleading allegations" warranting sanctions. "Discovery thoroughly disproved Musi's baseless conspiracy theory that Apple schemed to eliminate the Musi app from the App Store to benefit 'friends' in the music industry," Apple argued. But Musi fired back over the weekend, calling (PDF) Apple's motion for sanctions "frivolous" and demanding sanctions be ordered instead against Apple for allegedly abusing the sanctions rule as a "tactic of intimidation and harassment." Musi noted that Apple's requested sanctions against Musi "are not appropriate if there is even 'some credible evidence,'" then included internal emails and references to testimony from Apple's own employees that seemingly met this low bar.

Most likely, this part of the dispute will not be settled until July 30, when a hearing is scheduled on the motions for sanctions. Apple is seemingly hoping that the court will agree that Musi's complaint misrepresents the facts and is so misleading that the complaint must be struck entirely, perhaps cutting out the heart of Musi's argument. However, Musi pointed out that Apple previously sought sanctions and withdrew that fight, allegedly recognizing that its bid for sanctions was "baseless." To convince the court that this second bid is "equally frivolous," Musi shared receipts, attaching internal communications from Apple employees that Apple allegedly worked hard to keep out of the courtroom.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://yro.slashdot.org/story/25/05/27/2112200/musi-says-evidence-shows-apple-conspired-with-music-industry-on-app-store-ban?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

A German court has sentenced two former Volkswagen executives to prison and handed suspended sentences to two others for their roles in the Dieselgate emissions scandal, marking the conclusion of a nearly four-year fraud trial. Politico reports: The former head of diesel development was sentenced to four and a half years in prison, and the head of drive train electronics to two years and seven months by the court in Braunschweig, German news agency dpa reported. Two others received suspended sentences of 15 months and 10 months. The scandal began in September 2015 when the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued a notice of violation. saying that the company had rigged engine control software that let the cars pass emissions tests while they emitted far more pollution in actual driving.

The company has paid more than $33 billion in fines and compensation to vehicle owners. Two VW managers received prison sentence in the U.S. The former head of the company's Audi division, Rupert Stadler, was given a suspended sentence of 21 months and a fine of 1.1 million euros ($1.25 million). The sentence is still subject to appeal. Missing from the trial, which lasted almost four years, was former CEO Martin Winterkorn. Proceedings against him have been suspended because of health issues, and it's not clear when he might go on trial. Winterkorn has denied wrongdoing. Further proceedings are open against 31 other suspects in Germany.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://yro.slashdot.org/story/25/05/27/2155250/german-court-sends-vw-execs-to-prison-over-dieselgate-scandal?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince warned that LaLiga's ISP blocking campaign -- intended to stop football piracy -- has caused widespread collateral damage by blocking millions of unrelated websites, including emergency services, in Spain. He called the strategy "bonkers" and expressed fear that lives could be lost due to the overblocking. TorrentFreak reports: Posting to X last week, Prince asked if anyone wanted any general feedback, declaring that he felt "in an especially truthful mood." The first response contained direct questions about the LaLiga controversy, the blame for which LaLiga places squarely on the shoulders of Cloudflare. For the first time since Cloudflare legal action failed to end LaLiga's blocking campaign, Prince weighed in with his assessment of the current situation and where he believes it's inevitably heading.

"A huge percentage of the Internet sits behind us, including small businesses and emergency resources in Spain," Prince explained. "The strategy of blocking broadly through ISPs based on IPs is bonkers because so much content, including emergency services content, can be behind any IP. The collateral damage is vast and is hurting Spanish citizens from accessing critical resources," he added. [...]

Despite LaLiga's unshakable claims to the contrary, Prince believes that it's not a case of 'if' disaster strikes, it's 'when.' "It's only a matter of time before a Spanish citizen can't access a life-saving emergency resource because the rights holder in a football match refuses to send a limited request to block one resource versus a broad request to block a whole swath of the Internet," Prince warned. "When that unfortunately and inevitably happens and harms lives, I'm confident policy makers and courts in Spain and elsewhere will make the right policy decision. Until then, it'll be up to users to make politicians clear on the risk. I pray no one dies."

The suggestion that LaLiga's demands were too broad, doesn't mean that Cloudflare is refusing to help, Prince suggested. On the contrary, there's a process available, LaLiga just needs to use it. "We've always been happy and willing to work with rights holders in conjunction with judicial bodies to protect their content. We have a clear process that works around the world to do that," Prince explained.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://yro.slashdot.org/story/25/05/27/2213253/cloudflare-ceo-football-piracy-blocks-will-claim-lives?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

unixbhaskar shares a report from Phoronix: The X86_NATIVE_CPU Kconfig build time option has been merged for the Linux 6.16 merge window as an easy means of enforcing "-march=native" compiler behavior on AMD and Intel processors to optimize your kernel build for the local CPU architecture/family of your system. For those wanting to "-march=native" your Linux kernel build on AMD/Intel x86_64 processors, the new CONFIG_X86_NATIVE_CPU option can be easily enabled for setting that compiler option on your local kernel builds.

The CONFIG_X86_NATIVE_CPU option is honored if compiling the Linux x86_64 kernel with GCC or LLVM Clang when using Clang 19 or newer due to a compiler bug with the Linux kernel on older compiler versions. In addition to setting the "-march=native" compiler option for the Linux kernel C code, enabling this new Kconfig build option also sets "-Ctarget-cpu=native" for the kernel's Rust code too.

"It seems interesting though," comments unixbhaskar. "If the detailed benchmark shows some improvement with the option selected, then distros might start to adopt it for their flavor."

[ Read more of this story ]( https://linux.slashdot.org/story/25/05/27/2223207/linux-616-adds-x86nativecpu-option-to-optimize-your-kernel-build?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

SpaceX's Starship Flight 9 successfully launched and reached space -- marking the first reuse of a Super Heavy booster -- but both rocket stages were ultimately lost mid-mission due to a "rapid unscheduled disassembly." SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said in a statement: "Starship made it to the scheduled ship engine cutoff, so big improvement over last flight! Leaks caused loss of main tank pressure during the coast and re-entry phase. Lot of good data to review." Musk said the next three Starship test launches could lift off every three to four weeks in the days ahead. Space.com reports: The mission lifted off from Starbase today at 7:37 p.m. EDT (2337 GMT; 6:37 p.m. local Texas time), sending the 40-story-tall rocket into the Texas sky atop a pillar of flame. It was a milestone launch, marking the first-ever reuse of a Super Heavy booster; this one earned its wings on Flight 7 in January. (SpaceX swapped out just four of its Raptors after that mission, meaning that 29 of the engines that flew today were flight-proven.) "Lessons learned from the first booster refurbishment and subsequent performance in flight will enable faster turnarounds of future reflights as progress is made towards vehicles requiring no hands-on maintenance between launches," the company wrote in a Flight 9 mission preview.

The Super Heavy had a somewhat different job to do today; it conducted a variety of experiments on its way back down to Earth. For example, the booster performed a controlled rather than randomized return flip and hit the atmosphere at a different angle. "By increasing the amount of atmospheric drag on the vehicle, a higher angle of attack can result in a lower descent speed, which in turn requires less propellant for the initial landing burn," SpaceX wrote in the mission preview. "Getting real-world data on how the booster is able to control its flight at this higher angle of attack will contribute to improved performance on future vehicles, including the next generation of Super Heavy." These experiments complicated Super Heavy's flight profile compared to previous missions, making another "chopsticks" catch at Starbase a tougher proposition. So, rather than risk damaging the launch tower and other infrastructure, SpaceX decided to bring the booster back for a "hard splashdown" in the Gulf of Mexico on Flight 9. That was the plan, anyway; Super Heavy didn't quite make it that far. The booster broke apart about 6 minutes and 20 seconds into today's flight, just after beginning its landing burn. "Confirmation that the booster did demise," [Dan Huot, of SpaceX's communications team] said during the Flight 9 webcast. Super Heavy's flight ended "before it was able to get through landing burn," he added.

Ship, by contrast, improved its performance a bit this time around. It reached space today on a suborbital trajectory that took it eastward over the Atlantic Ocean -- the same basic path the vehicle took on the truncated Flight 7 and Flight 8. But Flight 9 got choppy for Ship after that. The vehicle was supposed to deploy eight dummy versions of SpaceX's Starlink satellites about 18.5 minutes after liftoff, which would have been a landmark first for the Starship program. That didn't happen, however; the payload door couldn't open fully, so SpaceX abandoned the deployment try. Then, about 30 minutes after launch, Ship started to tumble, which was the result of a leak in Ship's fuel-tank systems, according to Huot. "A lot of those [tanks] are used for your attitude control," he said. "And so, at this point, we've essentially lost our attitude control with Starship." As a result, SpaceX nixed a plan to relight one of Ship's Raptor engines in space, a test that was supposed to happen about 38 minutes after launch. And the company gave up hope of a soft splashdown for the vehicle, instead becoming resigned to a breakup over the Indian Ocean during Ship's reentry.

The company therefore will not get all the data it wanted about Flight 9. And there was quite a bit to get; for example, SpaceX removed some of Ship's heat-shield tiles to stress-test vulnerable areas, and it also tried out several different tile materials, including one with an active cooling system. But the company plans to bounce back and try again soon, just as it did after Flight 7 and Flight 8. You can watch a recording of the launch on YouTube.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://science.slashdot.org/story/25/05/28/024205/spacex-starship-blasts-off-in-ninth-test-flight?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Axios: Advanced robots don't necessarily need to look like C3PO from "Star Wars" or George Jetson's maid Rosie, despite all the hype over humanoids from Wall Street and Big Tech. In fact, some of the biggest skeptics about human-shaped robots come from within the robotics industry itself. [...] The most productive -- and profitable -- bots are the ones that can do single tasks cheaply and efficiently. "If you look at where robots are really bringing value in a manufacturing environment, it is combining industrial or collaborative robots with mobility," ABB managing director Ali Raja tells Axios. "I don't see that there are any real practical applications where humanoids are bringing in a lot of value."

"The reason we have two legs is because whether Darwin or God or whoever made us, we have to figure out how to traverse an infinite number of things," like climbing a mountain or riding a bike, explains Michael Cicco, CEO of Fanuc America Corp. "When you get into the factory, even if it's a million things, it's still a finite number of things that you need to do." Human-shaped robots are over-engineered solutions to most factory chores that could be better solved by putting a robot arm on a wheeled base, he said.

"The thing about humanoids is not that it's a human factor. It's that it's more dynamically stable," counters Melonee Wise, chief product officer at Agility Robotics, which is developing a humanoid robot called Digit. When humans grab something heavy, they can shift their weight for better balance. The same is true for a humanoid, she said. Using a robotic arm on a mobile base to pick up something heavy, "it's like I'm a little teapot and you become very unstable," she said, bending at the waist.

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In an interview with Wired (paywalled), OnePlus co-founder and Nothing CEO, Carl Pei, said the future of smartphones will center around the OS and AI to get things done -- rendering traditional apps a thing of the past. 9to5Google reports: Pei says that Nothing's strength is in "creativity," adding that "the creative companies of the past" such as Apple "have become very big and very corporate, and they're no longer very creative." He then dives into what else but AI, explaining that Nothing wants to create the "iPod" of AI, saying that Apple built a product that simply built a better user experience: "If you look back, the iPod was not launched as 'an MP3 player with a hard disk drive.' The hard disk drive was merely a means to a better user experience. AI is just a new technology that enables us to create better products for users. So, our strategy is not to make big claims that AI is going to change the world and revolutionize smartphones. For us, it's about using it to solve a consumer problem, not to tell a big story. We want the product to be the story."

Pei then says that he doesn't see the current trend of AI products -- citing wearables such as smart glasses -- as the future of the technology. Rather, he sees the smartphone as the most important device for AI "for the foreseeable future," but as one that will "change dramatically." According to Pei, the future of the smartphone is one without apps, with the experience instead just revolving around the OS and what it can do and how it can "optimize" for the user, acting as a proactive, automated agent and that, in the end, the user "will spend less time doing boring things and more time on what they care about."

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Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols writes in an op-ed for The Register: I use AI a lot, but not to write stories. I use AI for search. When it comes to search, AI, especially Perplexity, is simply better than Google. Ordinary search has gone to the dogs. Maybe as Google goes gaga for AI, its search engine will get better again, but I doubt it. In just the last few months, I've noticed that AI-enabled search, too, has been getting crappier.

In particular, I'm finding that when I search for hard data such as market-share statistics or other business numbers, the results often come from bad sources. Instead of stats from 10-Ks, the US Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) mandated annual business financial reports for public companies, I get numbers from sites purporting to be summaries of business reports. These bear some resemblance to reality, but they're never quite right. If I specify I want only 10-K results, it works. If I just ask for financial results, the answers get... interesting. This isn't just Perplexity. I've done the exact same searches on all the major AI search bots, and they all give me "questionable" results.

Welcome to Garbage In/Garbage Out (GIGO). Formally, in AI circles, this is known as AI model collapse. In an AI model collapse, AI systems, which are trained on their own outputs, gradually lose accuracy, diversity, and reliability. This occurs because errors compound across successive model generations, leading to distorted data distributions and "irreversible defects" in performance. The final result? A Nature 2024 paper stated, "The model becomes poisoned with its own projection of reality." [...]

We're going to invest more and more in AI, right up to the point that model collapse hits hard and AI answers are so bad even a brain-dead CEO can't ignore it. How long will it take? I think it's already happening, but so far, I seem to be the only one calling it. Still, if we believe OpenAI's leader and cheerleader, Sam Altman, who tweeted in February 2024 that "OpenAI now generates about 100 billion words per day," and we presume many of those words end up online, it won't take long.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://slashdot.org/story/25/05/28/0242240/some-signs-of-ai-model-collapse-begin-to-reveal-themselves?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

A former Minnesota waitress unknowingly helped North Korean workers steal $17.1 million in wages from over 300 American companies through an elaborate remote work scheme, federal prosecutors said this week. Christina Chapman operated a "laptop farm" from her home, managing dozens of computers that allowed North Koreans using stolen U.S. identities to work as legitimate tech employees.

The FBI estimates this broader infiltration involves thousands of North Korean workers generating hundreds of millions annually for the sanctions-hit regime. Chapman, recruited via LinkedIn in 2020 to serve as "the U.S. face" for overseas IT workers, handled logistics including receiving company laptops, installing remote access software, and processing falsified employment documents.

The North Korean workers accessed the devices daily from overseas, with some maintaining jobs for months or years at major American corporations. Chapman earned just under $177,000 before the FBI raided her Arizona operation in October 2023, seizing over 90 computers. She pleaded guilty in February to wire fraud, identity theft, and money laundering charges, facing up to nine years in prison at her July sentencing.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://yro.slashdot.org/story/25/05/28/1046243/north-korean-laptop-farm-operation-netted-17-million-through-unwitting-american-accomplice?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader shares a report: Without seeking approval of the San Francisco Board of Education, Superintendent of Schools Maria Su plans to unveil a new Grading for Equity plan on Tuesday that will go into effect this fall at 14 high schools and cover over 10,000 students. The school district is already negotiating with an outside consultant to train teachers in August in a system that awards a passing C grade to as low as a score of 41 on a 100-point exam.

Were it not for an intrepid school board member, the drastic change in grading with implications for college admissions and career readiness would have gone unnoticed and unexplained. It is buried in a three-word phrase on the last page of a PowerPoint presentation embedded in the school board meeting's 25-page agenda. The plan comes during the last week of the spring semester while parents are assessing the impact of over $100 million in budget reductions and deciding whether to remain in the public schools this fall. While the school district acknowledges that parent aversion to this grading approach is typically high and understands the need for "vigilant communication," outreach to parents has been minimal and may be nonexistent. The school district's Office of Equity homepage does not mention it and a page containing the SFUSD definition of equity has not been updated in almost three years.

Grading for Equity eliminates homework or weekly tests from being counted in a student's final semester grade. All that matters is how the student scores on a final examination, which can be taken multiple times. Students can be late turning in an assignment or showing up to class or not showing up at all without it affecting their academic grade. Currently, a student needs a 90 for an A and at least 61 for a D. Under the San Leandro Unified School District's grading for equity system touted by the San Francisco Unified School District and its consultant, a student with a score as low as 80 can attain an A and as low as 21 can pass with a D.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/05/28/1222221/grading-for-equity-coming-to-san-francisco-high-schools-this-fall?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Great swathes of the planet's oceans have become darker in the past two decades, according to researchers who fear the trend will have a severe impact on marine life around the world. From a report: Satellite data and numerical modelling revealed that more than a fifth of the global ocean darkened between 2003 and 2022, reducing the band of water that life reliant on sunlight and moonlight can thrive in. The effect is evident across 75m sq km (30m sq miles) of ocean, equivalent to the land area of Europe, Africa, China and North America combined, and disturbs the upper layer of water where 90% of marine species live.

Dr Thomas Davies, a marine conservationist at the University of Plymouth, said the findings were a "genuine cause for concern," with potentially severe implications for marine ecosystems, global fisheries and the critical turnover of carbon and nutrients in the oceans. Most marine life thrives in the photic zones of the world's oceans, the surface layers that allow sufficient light through for organisms to exploit. While sunlight can reach a kilometre beneath the waves, in practice there is little below 200 metres.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/05/28/118244/planets-darkening-oceans-pose-threat-to-marine-life-scientists-say?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Sales of blue book exam booklets have surged dramatically across the nation as professors turn to analog solutions to prevent ChatGPT cheating. The University of California, Berkeley reported an 80% increase in blue book sales over the past two academic years, while Texas A&M saw 30% growth and the University of Florida recorded nearly 50% increases this school year. The surge comes as students who were freshmen when ChatGPT launched in 2022 approach senior year, having had access to AI throughout their college careers.

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The recent surge in cyberattacks is pushing cyber insurers toward a fundamental reassessment of premium pricing, Bloomberg reports, with industry analysts warning of an impending "inflection point" that could reshape the market. Marks & Spencer's impending $404 million hit to its operating profit from a recent hack underscores claims that will "attract intense scrutiny from insurers," according to cybersecurity expert Adam Casey.

While incidents like this might not trigger immediate premium hikes across the board, they might likely contribute to an upward pricing trend. Panmure Liberum analyst Abid Hussain said that premiums have recently been falling as policy coverage has tightened, but the industry now faces a critical decision point. "There's going to be another step change, either in the policy wording or in the premiums, or both," Hussain said.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://it.slashdot.org/story/25/05/28/1215203/cyberattack-surge-creates-opportunity-for-insurers-prompts-rethink-on-premiums?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Japan Post has launched a "digital address" system that links seven-digit combinations of numbers and letters to physical addresses. From a report: Under the system, users can input these seven-digit codes on online shopping websites, and their addresses will automatically appear on the sites.

People can obtain digital addresses by registering with Japan Post's Yu ID membership service. Their digital addresses will not change even if their physical addresses change. Their new addresses will be linked to the codes if they submit notices of address changes.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/05/28/1638216/japan-post-launches-digital-address-system?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

A fairly comprehensive look at the early personal computer culture reveals that from 1975 through early 1977, personal computers remained "almost exclusively the province of hobbyists who loved to play with computers and found them inherently fascinating," according to newly surfaced historical research. When BYTE magazine launched in 1975, its cover called computers "the world's greatest toy," reflecting the recreational rather than practical focus of early adopters.

A BYTE magazine survey from late 1976 showed these pioneers were remarkably homogeneous: 72% held at least a bachelor's degree, had a median annual income of $20,000 ($123,000 in 2025 dollars), and were overwhelmingly male at 99%. Rather than developing practical software applications, early users gravitated toward games, particularly Star Trek simulations that appeared frequently in magazine advertisements and user group demonstrations.

The hobbyist community organized around local clubs like the famous Homebrew Computer Club, retail stores, and specialized magazines that helped establish what one researcher calls "a mythology of the microcomputer." This narrative positioned hobbyists as democratizing heroes who "ripped the computer and the knowledge of how to use it from the hands of the priests, sharing freedom and power with the masses," challenging what they termed the "computer priesthood" of institutional gatekeepers. This self-contained hobbyist culture would soon be "subsumed by a larger phenomenon" as businessmen began targeting mass markets in 1977.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://it.slashdot.org/story/25/05/28/126210/the-hobby-computer-culture?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

The world faces an 80% probability of breaking another annual temperature record within the next five years, according to a forecast released Wednesday by the World Meteorological Organization and the UK Meteorological Office.

The projections, derived from more than 200 computer simulations run by 10 global scientific centers, indicate an 86% chance that one of the next five years will surpass the 1.5 degrees Celsius warming threshold established by the Paris climate accord, with a 70% chance that the entire five-year period will average above that milestone.

For the first time, the agencies identified a slight possibility that global annual temperatures could reach the more alarming 2 degrees Celsius benchmark before the decade's end.

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Japanese police referred five individuals and a company to prosecutors last week for allegedly operating a website that published detailed movie plots without permission from rights holders. The Miyagi Prefectural Police Headquarters and Minamisanriku Police Station sent the case to the Sendai District Public Prosecutors Office on suspicion of violating the Copyright Act.

The Content Overseas Distribution Association described the case as having "very few precedents for a corporation being referred to the prosecutor's office on suspicion of violating the Copyright Act, making this an extremely rare case."

The website posted detailed content from films including "Godzilla Minus One" and four others copyrighted by Toho, "Shin Kamen Rider" and two others by Toei, "Neck" and one other by KADOKAWA, and "Shin Ultraman" by Tsuburaya Productions. The site listed more than 8,000 films with complete storylines, character names, dialogue, and scene descriptions.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://slashdot.org/story/25/05/28/111250/japanese-authorities-refer-spoiler-website-operators-to-prosecutors-in-rare-corporate-copyright-case?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from 9to5Google: Google Photos was announced at I/O 2015 and the company is now celebrating the app's 10th birthday with a redesign of the photo editor. Google is redesigning the Photos editor so that it "provides helpful suggestions and puts all our powerful editing tools in one place." It starts with a new fullscreen viewer that places the date, time, and location at the top of your screen. Meanwhile, it's now Share, Edit, Add to (instead of Lens), and Trash at the bottom.

Once editing, Google Photos has moved controls for aspect ratio, flip, and rotate to be above the image. In the top-left corner, we have Auto Frame, which debuted in Magic Editor on the Pixel 9, to fill-in backgrounds and is now coming to more devices. Underneath, we get options for Enhance, Dynamic, and "AI Enhance" in the Auto tab. That's followed by Lighting, Color, and Composition, as well as a search shortcut: "You can use AI-powered suggestions that combine multiple effects for quick edits in a variety of tailored options, or you can tap specific parts of an image to get suggested tools for editing that area."

The editor allows you to circle or "tap specific parts of an image to get suggested tools for editing that area." This includes the subject, background, or some other aspect. You then see the Blur background, Add portrait light, Sharpen, Move and Reimagine appear in the example below. We also see the redesigned sliders throughout this updated interface. This Google Photos editor redesign "will begin rolling out globally to Android devices next month, with iOS following later this year." We already know the app is set for a Material 3 Expressive redesign. Meanwhile, Google Photos is starting to roll out the ability to share albums with a QR code. This method makes for easy viewing and adding with people nearby. Google even suggests printing it out when in (physical) group settings. Google shared a few tips, tricks and tools for the new editor in a blog post.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/05/28/1940259/google-photos-turns-10-with-major-editor-redesign-qr-code-sharing?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Telegram has partnered with xAI to integrate the Grok chatbot into its platform for one year, with xAI paying $300 million in cash and equity. Telegram will also receive 50% of subscription revenue from Grok. TechCrunch reports: Earlier this year, xAI made the Grok chatbot available to Telegram's premium users. It seems Grok might now be made available to all users. A video posted by [Telegram CEO Pavel Durov] on X suggested that Grok can be pinned on top of chats within the app, and users can also ask questions to Grok from the search bar. Notably, Meta has also integrated Meta AI into the search bar on Instagram and WhatsApp. The video also shows that you will be able to use Grok for writing suggestions, summarizing chats, links, and documents, and creating stickers. Grok will supposedly also help answer questions for businesses and assist with moderation.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://slashdot.org/story/25/05/28/1946247/xai-to-pay-telegram-300-million-to-integrate-grok-into-chat-app?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman (paywalled), this year's iOS update won't be called iOS 19. "Instead, Apple is planning to call it 'iOS 26' as part of a new year-based naming strategy," reports 9to5Mac. The new naming scheme will apply to all of Apple's software platforms. From the report: Bloomberg explains that Apple is making this change to "bring consistency to its branding and move away from an approach that can be confusing to customers and developers." The branding alignment comes as Apple is also reportedly planning dramatic redesigns for all of its platforms. The goal seems to be to unify everything both in terms of naming and design.

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