Опубликован выпуск дистрибутива Nobara 42, основанного на пакетной базе Fedora Linux 42 и включающего дополнительные исправления для решения проблем с запуском компьютерных игр, потоковым вещанием и выполнением задач, связанных с созданием контента. Для загрузки подготовлены девять установочных образов: официальный со стилизованным KDE, дополнительные с чистыми окружениями GNOME и KDE, Steam-HTPC для Steam Deck на базе KDE и Steam-Handheld для носимых устройств, а также отдельные сборки первых четырёх образов с проприетарными драйверами NVIDIA.

https://www.opennet.ru/opennews/art.shtml?num=63234

Разработчики из компании Mozilla перевели основной репозиторий с исходным кодом Firefox с Mercurial на Git. Официальный Git-репозиторий Firefox размещён на GitHub. Через данный репозиторий теперь можно передавать изменения в форме pull-запросов.

https://www.opennet.ru/opennews/art.shtml?num=63235

Longtime Slashdot reader ndsurvivor shares a report from TechCrunch: In 2018, Liangbing Hu, a materials scientist at the University of Maryland, devised a way to turn ordinary wood into a material stronger than steel. It seemed like yet another headline-grabbing discovery that wouldn't make it out of the lab. "All these people came to him," said Alex Lau, CEO of InventWood, "He's like, OK, this is amazing, but I'm a university professor. I don't know quite what to do about it."

Rather than give up, Hu spent the next few years refining the technology, reducing the time it took to make the material from more than a week to a few hours. Soon, it was ready to commercialize, and he licensed the technology to InventWood. Now, the startup's first batches of Superwood will be produced starting this summer. "Right now, coming out of this first-of-a-kind commercial plant -- so it's a smaller plant -- we're focused on skin applications," Lau said. "Eventually we want to get to the bones of the building. Ninety percent of the carbon impact from buildings is concrete and steel in the construction of the building." To build the factory, InventWood has raised $15 million in the first close of a Series A round. The round was led by the Grantham Foundation with participation from Baruch Future Ventures, Builders Vision, and Muus Climate Partners, the company exclusively told TechCrunch. How do they do it? According to TechCrunch, InventWood's Superwood is made by treating regular timber with "food industry" chemicals to remove lignin and modify its structure, then compressing it to increase hydrogen bonding between cellulose fibers. This densification makes the wood up to 10 times stronger than natural wood, with a higher strength-to-weight ratio than steel. "You end up with something that looks like these richer, tropical hardwoods," Lau added.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://science.slashdot.org/story/25/05/14/0049202/inventwood-is-about-to-mass-produce-wood-thats-stronger-than-steel?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Разработчики открытой платформы совместной работы Nextcloud пояснили причины урезания функциональности мобильного приложения и выразили недовольство политикой компании Google, которая под предлогом опасений возникновения проблем с безопасностью ограничила права приложения Nextcloud, насчитывающего более миллиона установок. По требованию Google, для распространения через каталог Google Play приложение Nextcloud не должно запрашивать полномочия для полного доступа ко всем файлам. В версии, размещённой в каталоге F-Droid, полномочия сохраняются, но подавляющее большинство пользователей Nextcloud используют Google Play.

https://www.opennet.ru/opennews/art.shtml?num=63236

Nobara Linux (модифицированная версия Fedora), с версии 42 переходит на rolling release с ядром 6.14.6, GNOME 48, KDE 6.3.4 и Mesa 25.1 для Wine Wayland.

Nobara 42 – это первый релиз, полностью разработанный в рамках модели обновления rolling release, что обеспечивает регулярные обновления без необходимости переустановки системы. Дистрибутив ориентирован на геймеров и создателей контента.

Brave как браузер по умолчанию

После тестирования различных браузеров разработчики выбрали Brave в качестве браузера по умолчанию. Это решение обусловлено проблемами, выявленными в других вариантах: Firefox сталкивался со сбоями GPU при прокрутке видео с поддержкой VRR, а Chromium и Vivaldi демонстрировали нестабильность в Google Meet при активной аппаратной акселерации.

Brave в Nobara 42 поставляется с предустановленной политикой, которая отключает функции Brave Rewards, Brave Wallet, Brave VPN и интеграцию с Tor для упрощения работы и повышения конфиденциальности. DNS-over-HTTPS остается в автоматическом режиме, но пользователи могут включить дополнительные функции по своему усмотрению.

Flatpost как универсальный менеджер Flatpak

Вместо традиционного графического менеджера пакетов, который теперь исключен из рабочего стола и панели избранного, Nobara предлагает Flatpost — новый интерфейс на базе GTK, разработанный командой проекта. Flatpost объединяет установку, удаление, обновление, управление правами и репозиториями для Flatpak-пакетов, поддерживая все среды рабочего стола, включая GNOME, KDE, Hyprland и Labwc. Инструмент повторяет функциональность Flatseal, предоставляя детализированные настройки разрешений.

В Nobara 42 обновлен интерфейс менеджера драйверов, упрощая переключение между стандартными и Git-версиями Vulkan-стека Mesa, а также между стабильными, бета- и экспериментальными ветками NVIDIA. Это позволяет пользователям настраивать систему без использования терминала. Mesa 25.1 включает дополнительные патчи для поддержки Wine Wayland и недавно анонсированной игры DOOM: The Dark Ages от id Software.

Nobara Linux 42 доступна в пяти вариантах:

•

Official: кастомизированная версия KDE с уникальной темой Nobara.

•

GNOME: стандартная среда GNOME.

•

KDE: стандартная среда KDE.

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Steam-HTPC: версия для HTPC, стилизованная под Steam Deck, использует KDE.

•

Steam-Handheld: версия для портативных устройств, также стилизованная под Steam Deck, использует KDE.

https://www.linux.org.ru/news/linux-general/17968095

An anonymous reader shares a report: U.K. retail giant Marks & Spencer has confirmed hackers stole its customers' personal information during a cyberattack last month. In a brief statement with London's stock exchange on Tuesday, the retailer said an unspecified amount of customer information was taken in the data breach.

The BBC, which first reported the company's filing, cited a Marks & Spencer online letter as saying that the stolen data includes customer names, dates of birth, home and email addresses, phone numbers, household information, and online order histories. The company also said it was resetting the online account passwords of its customers. FT adds: Marks and Spencer could claim for losses of as much as $133 million from its cyber insurers following a sustained hack where some customer data was stolen. The UK retailer's cyber policy allows it to claim up to $133 million, according to people familiar with the situation.

Allianz is the first insurer on the hook for M&S's losses, the people added, and is expected to pay at least the initial $13.3 million. Cyber specialist Beazley is also among the insurers exposed to losses at the FTSE 100 retailer, according to the people familiar with the situation.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://it.slashdot.org/story/25/05/14/1050202/marks-and-spencer-confirms-hackers-stole-customers-personal-data-cyber-insurance-payout-to-be-worth-up-to-133-million?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Состоялся выпуск 1.4.6 консольной утилиты и библиотеки [ RHash ]( https://github.com/rhash/RHash ) , предназначенной для расчёта многих популярных алгоритмов хеширования, с возможностью верификации.

Проект написан на языке C и распространяется по лицензии BSD.

( [ читать дальше... ]( https://www.linux.org.ru/news/opensource/17968122#cut ) )

President Donald Trump's administration has taken a tougher stance on Chinese technology advances, warning companies around the world that using AI chips made by Huawei could trigger criminal penalties for violating US export controls. From a report: The commerce department issued guidance to clarify that Huawei's Ascend processors were subject to export controls because they almost certainly contained, or were made with, US technology.

Its Bureau of Industry and Security, which oversees export controls, said on Tuesday it was taking a more stringent approach to foreign AI chips, including "issuing guidance that using Huawei Ascend chips anywhere in the world violates US export controls." But people familiar with the matter stressed that the bureau had not issued a new rule, but was making it clear to companies that Huawei chips are likely to have violated a measure that requires hard-to-get licences to export US technology to the Chinese company.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://slashdot.org/story/25/05/14/140235/us-warns-against-using-huawei-chips-anywhere-in-the-world?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Workers who secured substantial salary increases during the pandemic hiring frenzy are now confronting a stark reality: they're likely overpaid in today's cooling job market. According to new Korn Ferry data, two-thirds of U.S. workers believe they're compensated at or above their market value.

The tech sector has experienced significant wage deflation, with expanding pay transparency laws making market corrections impossible to ignore. Only 60% of recent job switchers received raises in Q1 2025, down from 73% just one quarter earlier.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://slashdot.org/story/25/05/14/1428219/inflated-salaries-put-targets-on-workers-backs-as-market-cools?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader shares a report: Sony just announced its financial forecast for the next year, and it's expecting to be impacted by tariffs to the tune of 100 billion yen (about $680 million). To compensate, the company says it's considering options including moving manufacturing to the US and increasing prices for consumers.

Speaking to investors during the company's earnings call, Sony CFO Lin Tao confirmed that the company is considering "passing on" the price of tariffs to consumers in order to mitigate the impact on its bottom line. Tao didn't mention the PS5 by name though, and it's possible that Sony could try to protect pricing on its console through increases elsewhere in its electronics business. Sony has already increased the price of the PS5 this year, but only in the UK, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://games.slashdot.org/story/25/05/14/1440243/sony-considers-ps5-price-hikes?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Warner Bros. Discovery said Wednesday it will revert its streaming service name from Max back to HBO Max this summer, just two years after dropping the HBO branding.

The decision, revealed at the company's upfront presentation to advertisers in New York, represents an admission that HBO's premium brand equity remains valuable in the streaming landscape. "Returning the HBO brand into HBO Max will further drive the service forward and amplify the uniqueness that subscribers can expect," WBD stated in a press release.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://entertainment.slashdot.org/story/25/05/14/1618216/hbo-maxes-out-on-rebranding?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Gilmoure shares a report: U.S. energy officials are reassessing the risk posed by Chinese-made devices that play a critical role in renewable energy infrastructure after unexplained communication equipment was found inside some of them, two people familiar with the matter said. Power inverters, which are predominantly produced in China, are used throughout the world to connect solar panels and wind turbines to electricity grids. They are also found in batteries, heat pumps and electric vehicle chargers.

[...] Using the rogue communication devices to skirt firewalls and switch off inverters remotely, or change their settings, could destabilise power grids, damage energy infrastructure, and trigger widespread blackouts, experts said. "That effectively means there is a built-in way to physically destroy the grid," one of the people said, The two people declined to name the Chinese manufacturers of the inverters and batteries with extra communication devices, nor say how many they had found in total.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://it.slashdot.org/story/25/05/14/1655244/rogue-communication-devices-found-in-chinese-solar-power-inverters?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

A California judge slammed a pair of law firms for the undisclosed use of AI after he received a supplemental brief with "numerous false, inaccurate, and misleading legal citations and quotations." From a report: In a ruling submitted last week, Judge Michael Wilner imposed $31,000 in sanctions against the law firms involved, saying "no reasonably competent attorney should out-source research and writing" to AI, as pointed out by law professors Eric Goldman and Blake Reid on Bluesky.

"I read their brief, was persuaded (or at least intrigued) by the authorities that they cited, and looked up the decisions to learn more about them -- only to find that they didn't exist," Judge Milner writes. "That's scary. It almost led to the scarier outcome (from my perspective) of including those bogus materials in a judicial order."

[ Read more of this story ]( https://yro.slashdot.org/story/25/05/14/1715234/judge-slams-lawyers-for-bogus-ai-generated-research?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Palantir CEO Alex Karp criticized Europe's AI adoption while praising Saudi Arabia's engineering talent at Tuesday's Saudi-US Investment Forum in Riyadh. "It's like people have given up," Karp said of Europe, while commending Saudi engineers for their "meritocracy and patriotism" and "deep tradition in engineering excellence."

[ Read more of this story ]( https://slashdot.org/story/25/05/14/1830212/palantir-ceo-slams-europes-ai-ambitions?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: We've known for months now that Valve is expanding its Linux-based SteamOS operating system beyond the Steam Deck to other handheld PCs, starting with some versions of the Asus ROG Ally. This week, Valve began making some changes to its Steam storefront to prepare for a future when the Deck isn't the only hardware running SteamOS. A new "SteamOS Compatible" label will begin rolling out "over the next few weeks" to denote "whether a game and all of its middleware is supported on SteamOS," including "game functionality, launcher functionality, and anti-cheat support." Games that don't meet this requirement will be marked as "SteamOS Unsupported." As with current games and the Steam Deck, this label doesn't mean these games won't run, but it does mean there may be some serious compatibility issues that keep the game from running as intended.

Valve says that "over 18,000 titles on Steam [will] be marked SteamOS compatible out of the gate," and that game developers won't need to do anything extra to earn the label if their titles already support the Steam Deck. SteamOS uses a collection of app translation technologies called Proton to make unmodified Windows applications run on SteamOS. This technology has dramatically improved SteamOS's game compatibility, compared to older SteamOS versions that required games to support Linux natively, but it still can't support every single game that Windows does. Valve says that the "SteamOS Compatible" label isn't meant to imply how well a game will run on the Steam Deck or any other SteamOS handheld but that this label is "just the first step." The company is "continuing to work on ways for people to have a better understanding of how games will run on their specific devices."

[ Read more of this story ]( https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/05/14/2041200/valve-takes-another-step-toward-making-steamos-a-true-windows-competitor?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Uber is launching a fixed-route shuttle service in major U.S. cities that offers commuters up to 50% off UberX fares during weekday peak hours. Called "Route Share," the service aims to provide a more affordable, predictable alternative to standard ride-hailing. TechCrunch reports: The commuter shuttles will drive between pre-set stops every 20 minutes, according to Sachin Kansal, Uber's chief product officer. He noted that there will be dozens of routes in each launch city -- like between Williamsburg and Midtown in NYC. The routes, which are selected based on Uber's extensive data on popular travel patterns, might have one or two additional stops to pick up other passengers. To start, riders will only ever have to share the route with up to two other co-riders.

Riders can book a seat anywhere from seven days to 10 minutes before a scheduled pickup, and the app will provide them with turn-by-turn directions to get them from their house to the corner where they'll be picked up. Uber is relying on the same underlying technology that it uses for Uber Share, its shared rides offering where riders can get 15% to 30% off the cost of an UberX ride by pooling with others. Kansal told TechCrunch that Uber completes millions of shared trips annually and has been seeing more traction lately as riders look for more ways to save. Hence, Route Share.

Uber envisions a future where Route Share could qualify for pre-tax commuter benefits. However, as a spokesperson noted, the company would need to find a way to match those trips with Uber XL vehicles. That's because only six-seater vehicles would meet the eligibility requirements. A potential progression of Route Share would involve autonomous vehicles, particularly in chaotic cities like New York City, where no self-driving car companies have deigned to test.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/05/14/2048258/uber-to-introduce-fixed-route-shuttles-in-major-us-cities?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

BrianFagioli shares a report from BetaNews: For years, NordVPN made Linux users live in the terminal. Sure, the command-line interface technically worked, but let's not pretend it was ideal for everyone. Meanwhile, competitors like Surfshark and ExpressVPN had already given their Linux users full graphical interfaces. Now, NordVPN has finally caught up by launching its very own GUI for Linux. So, what exactly does this mean? Well, instead of typing in commands, users can now click their way through connection options, settings, and even theme preferences like light or dark mode. This will arguably make using the service on Linux much easier. [...]

Just like on Windows and macOS, the NordVPN GUI lets you quickly connect to servers, activate features, and monitor your connection in a clean, modern interface. And yes, those features include fan favorites like Dedicated IP, Double VPN, Onion Over VPN, Kill Switch, and Threat Protection. In other words, the features are the same, only easier to access now. That said, some advanced tools, like Meshnet, are still CLI-only for the time being. But at least now there's a choice. And if you want to stick to the terminal, don't worry, that option hasn't gone away.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/05/14/2054229/nordvpn-finally-gets-a-proper-gui-on-linux?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from ZDNet: Would you believe Microsoft has announced a new Linux distribution service for its Azure cloud service? You should. For many years, the most popular operating system on Azure has not been Windows Server, it's been Linux. Last time I checked, in 2024, Azure Linux Platforms Group Program Manager Jack Aboutboul told me that 60% of Azure Marketplace offerings and more than 60% of virtual machine cores use Linux. Those figures mean it's sensible for Microsoft to make it easier than ever for Linux distributors to release first-class Linux distros on Azure. The tech giant is taking this step, said Andrew Randall, principal manager for the Azure Core Linux product management team, by making "Azure Image Testing for Linux (AITL) available 'as a service' to distro publishers."

ATIL is built on Microsoft's Linux Integration Services Automation project (LISA). Microsoft's Linux Systems Group originally developed this initiative to validate Linux OS images. LISA is a Linux quality validation system with two parts: a test framework to drive test execution and a set of test suites to verify Linux distribution quality. LISA is now open-sourced under the MIT License. The system enables continuous testing of Linux images, covering a wide range of scenarios from kernel updates to complex cloud-native workloads. [...] Specifically, the ATIL service is designed to streamline the deployment, testing, and management of Linux images on Azure. The service builds on the company's internal expertise and open-source tools to provide:

- Curated, Azure-optimized, security-hardened Linux images
- Automated quality assurance and compliance testing for Linux distributions
- Seamless integration with Azure's cloud-native services and Kubernetes environments

Krum Kashan, Microsoft Azure Linux Platforms Group program manager, said in a statement: "While numerous testing tools are available for validating Linux kernels, guest OS images, and user space packages across various cloud platforms, finding a comprehensive testing framework that addresses the entire platform stack remains a significant challenge. A robust framework is essential, one that seamlessly integrates with Azure's environment while providing coverage for major testing tools, such as LTP and kselftest, and covers critical areas like networking, storage, and specialized workloads, including Confidential VMs, HPC, and GPU scenarios. This unified testing framework is invaluable for developers, Linux distribution providers, and customers who build custom kernels and images."

[ Read more of this story ]( https://linux.slashdot.org/story/25/05/14/215254/microsoft-is-open-sourcing-its-linux-integration-services-automation-image-testing-service?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Apple's smartphone shipments in China plunged nearly 50% year-over-year in March 2025, as domestic brands like Huawei and Vivo surged ahead -- now controlling 92% of the market. MacRumors reports: The steep decline saw shipments fall to just 1.89 million units, down from 3.75 million during the same period last year. That shrinks Apple's share of the Chinese market to approximately 8%, while domestic brands now control 92% of smartphone shipments. For the entire first quarter, non-Chinese brand shipments declined over 25%, while total smartphone shipments in China actually increased by 3.3%.

Apple's struggles come as domestic competitors have gained ground. Counterpoint Research reports Huawei now leads with a 19.4% share, followed by Vivo (17%), Xiaomi (16.6%), and Oppo (14.6%). Apple has slipped to fifth place with 14.1%. Several factors are driving Apple's declining fortunes. The company faces competition from rejuvenated local brands like Huawei, which has rebounded with proprietary chips and its HarmonyOS Next software. Chinese government policies appear to be playing a role too. Under government subsidies, consumers of electronics get a 15% refund of products that are priced under 6,000 yuan ($820). Apple's standard iPhone 16 starts at 5,999 yuan.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://mobile.slashdot.org/story/25/05/14/2118214/iphone-shipments-crash-50-in-china-as-local-brands-dominate?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Netflix said its cheaper, ad-supporter tier now has 94 million monthly active users -- an increase of more than 20 million since its last public tally in November. CNBC reports: The company and its peers have been increasingly leaning on advertising to boost the profitability of their streaming products. Netflix first introduced the ad-supported plan in November 2022. Netflix's ad-supported plan costs $7.99 per month, a steep discount from its least-expensive ad-free plan, at $17.99 per month. Netflix also said its cheapest tier reaches more 18- to 34-year-olds than any U.S. broadcast or cable network. "When you compare us to our competitors, attention starts higher and ends much higher," Netflix president of advertising Amy Reinhard said in a statement. "Even more impressive, members pay as much attention to mid-roll ads as they do to the shows and movies themselves."

[ Read more of this story ]( https://entertainment.slashdot.org/story/25/05/14/2125248/netflix-says-its-ad-tier-now-has-94-million-monthly-active-users?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Google has warned that the hacker group known as "Scattered Spider," which recently disrupted UK retailer Marks & Spencer, is now targeting U.S. retailers with aggressive and sophisticated cyberattacks. "U.S. retailers should take note. These actors are aggressive, creative, and particularly effective at circumventing mature security programs," John Hultquist, an analyst at Google's cybersecurity arm, said in an email sent on Wednesday. The Guardian reports: Scattered Spider is widely reported to have been behind the particularly disruptive hack at M&S, one of the best-known names in British business, whose online operations have been frozen since 25 April. It has a history of focusing on a single sector at a time and is likely to target retail for a while longer, Hultquist said. Just a day before Google's warning, M&S announced that some customer data had been accessed, but this did not include usable payment or card details, or any account passwords. The Guardian understands the details taken are names, addresses and order histories. M&S said personal information had been accessed because of the "sophisticated nature of the incident."

"Today, we are writing to customers informing them that due to the sophisticated nature of the incident, some of their personal customer data has been taken," the company said. Hackers from the Scattered Spider ecosystem have been behind a slew of disruptive break-ins on both sides of the Atlantic. In 2023, hackers tied to the group made headlines for hacking the casino operators MGM Resorts International and Caesars Entertainment. Law enforcement has struggled to get a handle on the Scattered Spider hacking groups, in part because of their amorphousness, the hackers' youth, and a lack of cooperation from cybercrime victims.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://it.slashdot.org/story/25/05/14/224205/aggressive-hackers-of-uk-retailers-are-now-targeting-us-stores-says-google?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Microsoft quietly announced earlier this week that it plans to shut down a long-standing tool supplying search engine startups and other software developers with a raw feed of Bing search results. From a report: The Bing Search APIs, or application programming interfaces, were once vital to many niche Google alternatives, but fell out of favor more recently as Microsoft hiked fees for the service and restricted its use.

The shutoff, which is scheduled to begin on August 11, still came as a surprise to several developers who spoke with WIRED. Customers learned of it on Monday via an email from Microsoft and a post on its website. They were directed to consider using "Grounding with Bing Search as part of Azure AI Agents," a Microsoft service that allows chatbots like ChatGPT to augment AI-generated responses with "real-time public web data." Some developers view the AI-centric alternative as an insufficient replacement. Larger customers like DuckDuckGo told Wired they won't be affected.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://slashdot.org/story/25/05/14/2245232/microsoft-cuts-off-access-to-bing-search-data-as-it-shifts-focus-to-chatbots?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Google's DeepMind research division claims its newest AI agent marks a significant step toward using the technology to tackle big problems in math and science. The system, known as AlphaEvolve, is based on the company's Gemini large language models (LLMs), with the addition of an "evolutionary" approach that evaluates and improves algorithms across a range of use cases. AlphaEvolve is essentially an AI coding agent, but it goes deeper than a standard Gemini chatbot. When you talk to Gemini, there is always a risk of hallucination, where the AI makes up details due to the non-deterministic nature of the underlying technology. AlphaEvolve uses an interesting approach to increase its accuracy when handling complex algorithmic problems.

According to DeepMind, this AI uses an automatic evaluation system. When a researcher interacts with AlphaEvolve, they input a problem along with possible solutions and avenues to explore. The model generates multiple possible solutions, using the efficient Gemini Flash and the more detail-oriented Gemini Pro, and then each solution is analyzed by the evaluator. An evolutionary framework allows AlphaEvolve to focus on the best solution and improve upon it. Many of the company's past AI systems, for example, the protein-folding AlphaFold, were trained extensively on a single domain of knowledge. AlphaEvolve, however, is more dynamic. DeepMind says AlphaEvolve is a general-purpose AI that can aid research in any programming or algorithmic problem. And Google has already started to deploy it across its sprawling business with positive results. DeepMind's AlphaEvolve AI has optimized Google's Borg cluster scheduler, reducing global computing resource usage by 0.7% -- a significant cost saving at Google's scale. It also outperformed specialized AI like AlphaTensor by discovering a more efficient algorithm for multiplying complex-valued matrices. Additionally, AlphaEvolve proposed hardware-level optimizations for Google's next-gen Tensor chips.

The AI remains too complex for public release but that may change in the future as it gets integrated into smaller research tools.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/05/14/2212200/google-deepmind-creates-super-advanced-ai-that-can-invent-new-algorithms?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Разработчики проекта Tor представили утилиту Oniux, предназначенную для принудительного направления трафика отдельных приложений через сеть Tor. По своему назначению Oniux напоминает ранее доступную программу torsocks и отличается использованием для изоляции пространств имён (network namespace), предоставляемых ядром Linux, вместо подмены функций стандартной библиотеки через механизм LD_PRELOAD. Код утилиты написан на языке Rust и распространяется под лицензиями Apache 2.0 и MIT.

https://www.opennet.ru/opennews/art.shtml?num=63237

Новые функции:

• Новый экран приветствия.

• Поддержка импорта файлов Vectornator / Linearity Curve.

• Расширение «Clean up Paths» для удаления дублирующих узлов и узлов ближе заданного порога.

• Улучшенный импорт файлов Affinity Designer (.afdesign).

( [ читать дальше... ]( https://www.linux.org.ru/news/multimedia/17968815#cut ) )

Fintech startup Klarna is now recruiting humans after its AI customer service agents underperformed. The buy-now-pay-later company, which eliminated its marketing contracts in 2023 and customer service team in 2024, now plans an "Uber-type setup" with remote gig workers.

This marks a stark reversal from CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski's 2024 claim that "AI can already do all of the jobs that we, as humans, do." Siemiatkowski told Bloomberg: "From a brand perspective, I just think it's so critical that you are clear to your customer that there will be always a human if you want." He added that "cost unfortunately seems to have been a too predominant evaluation factor" leading to "lower quality."

[ Read more of this story ]( https://slashdot.org/story/25/05/14/2339257/klarna-pivots-back-to-humans-after-ai-experiment-fails?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Доступен выпуск дистрибутива Whonix 17.3, нацеленного на предоставление гарантированной анонимности, безопасности и защиты частной информации. Дистрибутив основан на Debian GNU/Linux и использует Tor для обеспечения анонимности. Наработки проекта распространяются под лицензией GPLv3. Для загрузки подготовлены образы виртуальных машин в формате ova для VirtualBox (2.3 ГБ c Xfce и 1.5 ГБ консольный), которые могут быть сконвертирован для использования с гипервизором KVM.

https://www.opennet.ru/opennews/art.shtml?num=63238

Montana has passed a bill allowing licensed clinics to offer experimental medical treatments that haven't been approved by the FDA, provided the drugs have passed phase I safety trials. MIT Technology Review reports: The bill, which was passed by the state legislature on April 29 and is expected to be signed by Governor Greg Gianforte, essentially expands on existing Right to Try legislation in the state. But while that law was originally designed to allow terminally ill people to access experimental drugs, the new bill was drafted and lobbied for by people interested in extending human lifespans -- a group of longevity enthusiasts that includes scientists, libertarians, and influencers. These longevity enthusiasts are hoping Montana will serve as a test bed for opening up access to experimental drugs. [...]

Supporters of the bill say it gives individuals the freedom to make choices about their own bodies. At the same event, bioethicist Jessica Flanigan of the University of Richmond said she was "optimistic" about the measure, because "it's great any time anybody is trying to give people back their medical autonomy." Ultimately, they hope that the new law will enable people to try unproven drugs that might help them live longer, make it easier for Americans to try experimental treatments without having to travel abroad, and potentially turn Montana into a medical tourism hub.

But ethicists and legal scholars aren't as optimistic. "I hate it," bioethicist Alison Bateman-House of New York University says of the bill. She and others are worried about the ethics of promoting and selling unproven treatments -- and the risks of harm should something go wrong. [...] At any rate, the clinics are coming to Montana, says [Dylan Livingston, founder and CEO of the Alliance for Longevity Initiatives]. "We have half a dozen that are interested, and maybe two or three that are definitively going to set up shop out there." He won't name names, but he says some of the interested clinicians already have clinics in the US, while others are abroad."

Mac Davis -- founder and CEO of Minicircle, the company that developed the controversial "anti-aging" gene therapy -- told MIT Technology Review he was "looking into it." "I think this can be an opportunity for America and Montana to really kind of corner the market when it comes to medical tourism," says Livingston. "There is no other place in the world with this sort of regulatory environment."

[ Read more of this story ]( https://science.slashdot.org/story/25/05/14/2354249/first-us-hub-for-experimental-medical-treatments-is-coming?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

В кодовую базу эталонной реализации языка Ruby добавлен новый JIT-компилятор ZJIT, позиционируемый как следующее поколение Ruby JIT. ZJIT войдёт в состав следующего значительного выпуска Ruby 3.5, в котором будет доступен в качестве опции параллельно с JIT-компилятором YJIT, а в версии Ruby 3.6 возможно заменит его. Как и YJIT новый JIT-компилятор написан на языке Rust. Оба JIT-компилятора созданы командой разработчиков из компании Shopify в рамках инициативы по увеличению производительности Ruby-программ, использующих фреймворк Rails и вызывающих очень много методов.

https://www.opennet.ru/opennews/art.shtml?num=63240

U.S. President Donald Trump said he has told Apple CEO Tim Cook to stop expanding manufacturing operations in India despite New Delhi offering a "no-tariff deal" to the United States, a move that could impede India's aspirations to become a global technology manufacturing hub.

"I had a little problem with Tim Cook yesterday," Trump said during his state visit to Qatar, referring to the Apple chief executive. "He is building all over India. I don't want you building in India. India can take care of itself."

Apple has significantly increased its Indian manufacturing footprint, assembling $22 billion worth of iPhones in India during the 12 months through March. Apple said earlier this month a majority of its devices shipped into the U.S. in the June quarter will originate in India and Vietnam.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://apple.slashdot.org/story/25/05/15/0832215/trump-tells-apple-ceo-to-avoid-manufacturing-in-india?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Nvidia-backed CoreWeave plans to spend up to $23 billion this year on AI infrastructure and data center capacity, as it aims to meet the booming demand from clients. Reuters reports: The heavy spending plan weighed on its shares, which fell 5% after surging as much as 11% on better-than-expected revenue in its first results as a public company after debuting on the Nasdaq in March. The company's projected capital expenditure of between $3 billion and $3.5 billion for the second quarter was way above its revenue expectation of $1.06 billion to $1.1 billion. "While the revenue from Microsoft is likely secure for the next three years, CoreWeave represents overflow capacity for Microsoft, which may not need that capacity in the future," D.A. Davidson analyst Gil Luria said.

The company's revenue backlog was $25.9 billion as of March 31, with its five-year deal with OpenAI adding $11.2 billion to the pile up. As part of the deal signed in March, CoreWeave will provide AI infrastructure to OpenAI, while the ChatGPT maker will get a stake. CoreWeave expects annual revenue of $4.9 billion to $5.1 billion, above analysts' expectation of $4.61 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG. It reported revenue of $981.6 million for the first quarter, beating the estimate of $852.9 million.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://slashdot.org/story/25/05/15/001248/coreweave-to-spend-up-to-23-billion-this-year-to-tap-ai-demand-boom?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

15 мая этого года [ исполнилось 10 лет ]( https://www.linux.org.ru/news/opensource/11609538 ) с момента выхода первой стабильной версии языка программирования Rust, разрабатываемого Mozilla совместно с сообществом.

Основные итоги за это время:

•

В 2015 году на новый браузерный движок [ servo ]( https://github.com/servo/servo ) возлагали большие надежды, которые, к сожалению, [ пока ]( https://www.linux.org.ru/news/opensource/16007121 ) [ не оправдались ]( https://www.linux.org.ru/forum/talks/17664414 ) .

•

В том же году [ на Rust написана ]( https://www.linux.org.ru/news/opensource/12444364 ) операционная система [ Redox ]( https://www.redox-os.org/ ) , до сих пор остающаяся экзотикой.

•

В 2017 году была [ продемонстрирована возможность разработки частей Linux на Rust ]( https://www.linux.org.ru/news/development/13460359 ) . Спустя 8 лет это вылилось в [ кризис при продвижении языка программирования Rust в ядро Linux ]( https://www.linux.org.ru/news/kernel/17876385 ) .

•

На Rust [ потихоньку переписывают ]( https://www.linux.org.ru/news/ubuntu/17966677 ) системные утилиты для Linux-систем.

Попытки собрать истории растового успеха: [ раз ]( https://www.linux.org.ru/forum/development/17158211 ) , [ два ]( https://www.linux.org.ru/forum/talks/15282317 ) .

https://www.linux.org.ru/news/opensource/17968832

An anonymous reader shares a report: Microsoft's recently announced job cuts fell hardest on the people who build the company's products, showing that even software developers are at risk in the age of artificial intelligence.

In Microsoft's home state of Washington, software engineering was by far the largest single job category to receive layoff notices, making up more than 40% of the roughly 2,000 positions cut, according to state documents reviewed by Bloomberg. Microsoft on Tuesday said it would cut about 6,000 workers across the company. The Washington state data represents about a third of the total.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://slashdot.org/story/25/05/15/0010228/microsoft-layoffs-hit-coders-hardest-with-ai-costs-on-the-rise?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

A new study published in Nature Human Behaviour reveals that ChatGPT diminishes the diversity of ideas generated during brainstorming sessions. Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School found [PDF] that while generative AI tools may enhance individual creativity, they simultaneously reduce the collective diversity of novel content.

The investigation responds to previous research that examined ChatGPT's impact on creativity. Their findings align with separate research published in Science Advances suggesting AI-generated content tends toward homogeneity. This phenomenon mirrors what researchers call the "fourth grade slump in creativity," referencing earlier studies on how structured approaches can limit innovative thinking.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://slashdot.org/story/25/05/15/001250/chatgpt-diminishes-idea-diversity-in-brainstorming-study-finds?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase said Thursday it is offering a $20 million reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of criminals who attempted to extort the company for the same amount after stealing customer data.

The criminals bribed customer support agents in overseas markets to access records containing addresses, phone numbers, government IDs, and partial bank and Social Security details of more than 80,000 customers. "It sucks but when we see a problem like this we want to own it and make it right," Coinbase Chief Security Officer Philip Martin told Fortune.

The company will reimburse customers who fell victim to subsequent social engineering scams. No login credentials or wallet access were compromised in the breach. The extortionists had threatened to publish the stolen information unless paid $20 million in Bitcoin.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://it.slashdot.org/story/25/05/15/1415242/coinbase-offers-20-million-bounty-to-catch-data-thieves-after-extortion-attempt?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

The Federal Trade Commission has postponed enforcement of its consumer-friendly "click to cancel" rule from May 14 to July 14, giving businesses two additional months to comply. The regulation requires companies to make subscription cancellations as straightforward as the sign-up process, prohibiting practices like forcing customers who subscribed online to navigate through chatbots or call centers to cancel.

The rule, established under former Democratic Chair Lina Khan, unsurprisingly has garnered support from consumer advocates while facing legal opposition from industry groups. A coalition including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and organizations representing major telecom and media companies -- Charter Communications, Comcast, Disney Entertainment, and Warner Bros. Discovery -- has sued to block implementation, claiming the agency exceeded its authority.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/05/15/147249/ftc-delays-click-to-cancel-rule-implementation-to-july?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Google has overtaken IBM to become the leader in generative AI-related patents and also leads in the emerging area of agentic AI, according to data from IFI Claims. Axios: In the patents-for-agents U.S. rankings, Google and Nvidia top the list, followed by IBM, Intel and Microsoft, according to an analysis released Thursday.

Globally, Google and Nvidia also led the agentic patents list, but three Chinese universities also make the top 10, highlighting China's place as the chief U.S. rival in the field. In global rankings for generative AI, Google was also the leader -- but six of the top 10 global spots were held by Chinese companies or universities. Microsoft was No. 3, with Nvidia and IBM also in the top 10.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://yro.slashdot.org/story/25/05/15/140222/google-dominates-ai-patent-applications?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Apple has implemented conspicuous warning labels featuring red exclamation marks on EU App Store listings that use external payment systems. The company's new tactic targets apps like Instacar, a popular Hungarian vehicle valuation tool with thousands of positive reviews, displaying ominous warnings that the app "does not support the App Store's private and secure payment system."

The associated support page cautions users that external payments require providing personal information directly to developers and third parties "based on their privacy and security controls." The move also follows the Epic vs Apple ruling that prohibits Apple from interfering with developers linking to alternative payment systems.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://apple.slashdot.org/story/25/05/15/1642216/apple-tags-eu-apps-using-alternative-payments-with-warning-symbols?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Scientists have successfully treated a 9.5-month-old boy with an ultra-rare genetic disorder using the world's first personalized gene-editing therapy. The patient, identified as KJ, has CPS1 deficiency -- a condition affecting just one in 1.3 million babies that prevents proper ammonia processing and is often fatal.

The breakthrough treatment, detailed in the New England Journal of Medicine, uses base editing technology to correct KJ's specific DNA mutation. The therapy delivers CRISPR components wrapped in fatty lipid molecules that protect them in the bloodstream until they reach liver cells, where they make the precise edit needed.

After three infusions, KJ now eats normal amounts of protein and has maintained stable ammonia levels even through viral illnesses that would typically cause dangerous spikes. His weight has increased from the 7th to 40th percentile. Dr. Peter Marks, former FDA official, called the approach "one of the most potentially transformational technologies" because it could be rapidly adapted for thousands of other rare genetic diseases without lengthy development cycles.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://science.slashdot.org/story/25/05/15/1734220/baby-is-healed-with-worlds-first-personalized-gene-editing-treatment?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

School districts across the United States were woefully unprepared for ChatGPT's impact on education, according to thousands of pages of public records obtained by 404 Media. Documents from early 2023, the publication reports, show a "total crapshoot" in responses, with some state education departments admitting they hadn't considered ChatGPT's implications while others hired pro-AI consultants to train educators.

In California, when principals sought guidance, state officials responded that "unfortunately, the topic of ChatGPT has not come up in our circles." One California official admitted, "I have never heard of ChatGPT prior to your email." Meanwhile, Louisiana's education department circulated presentations suggesting AI "is like giving a computer a brain" and warning that "going back to writing essays - only in class - can hurt struggling learners."

Some administrators accepted the technology enthusiastically, with one Idaho curriculum head calling ChatGPT "AMAZING" and comparing resistance to early reactions against spell-check.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/05/15/1819231/american-schools-were-deeply-unprepared-for-chatgpt-public-records-show?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Uber's autonomous vehicle chief Andrew Macdonald predicted this week that the company will employ more human drivers in a decade despite aggressively expanding robotaxi operations. Speaking at the Financial Times' Future of the Car conference, Macdonald outlined a "hybrid marketplace" where autonomous vehicles dominate city centers while human drivers serve areas beyond robotaxi coverage, handle airport runs, and respond during extreme weather events.

"I am almost certain that there will be more Uber drivers in 10 years, not less, because I think the world will move from individual car ownership to mobility as a service," Macdonald said. The ride-hailing giant has struck partnerships with Waymo, Volkswagen, Wayve, WeRide, and Pony AI. Robotaxis are already operational in Austin and Phoenix, with CEO Dara Khosrowshahi claiming Waymo vehicles in Austin are busier than "99%" of human drivers.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/05/15/193236/uber-expects-more-drivers-amid-robotaxi-push?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: On Thursday, Telegram announced it had removed two huge black markets estimated to have generated more than $35 billion since 2021 by serving cybercriminals and scammers. Blockchain research firm Elliptic told Reuters that the Chinese-language markets Xinbi Guarantee and Huione Guarantee together were far more lucrative than Silk Road, an illegal drug marketplace that the FBI notoriously seized in 2013, which was valued at about $3.4 billion. Both markets were forced offline on Tuesday, Elliptic reported, and already, Huione Guarantee has confirmed that its market will cease to operate entirely due to the Telegram removal.

The disruption of both markets will be "a big blow for online fraudsters," Elliptic confirmed, cutting them off from a dependable source for "stolen data, money laundering services, and telecoms infrastructure." [...] Elliptic reported that Telegram connected black markets with an audience of a billion users, noting that Telegram tried to remove several Huione Guarantee channels earlier this year, but "the marketplace was ready" with backups and remained online until this week. Wired suggested that Huione Guarantee "operated in plain sight" on Telegram for years. But Telegram suggested it just discovered it. Huione Guarantee is a subsidiary of Huione Group, which was recently sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury for supporting "criminal syndicates who have stolen billions of dollars from Americans." According to Reuters, that included allegedly laundering "at least $37 million in crypto from cyber heists by North Korea and $36 million of crypto from so-called 'pig butchering' scams."

[ Read more of this story ]( https://yro.slashdot.org/story/25/05/15/205236/telegram-bans-35-billion-black-markets-used-to-sell-stolen-data-launder-crypto?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

В день празднования десятилетия с момента выпуска языка программирования Rust 1.0 (проект Rust был основан в 2006 году, выпуск 0.1 был сформирован в 2012 году, а первая стабильная версия предложена в 2015 году) опубликован релиз Rust 1.87. Язык сфокусирован на безопасной работе с памятью и предоставляет средства для достижения высокого параллелизма выполнения заданий, при этом обходясь без использования сборщика мусора и runtime (runtime сводится к базовой инициализации и сопровождению стандартной библиотеки).

https://www.opennet.ru/opennews/art.shtml?num=63242

Longtime Slashdot reader mprindle writes: Nextcloud has been in an ongoing battle with Google over the tech giant revoking the All Files permission from the Nextcloud Android App, which prevents users from managing their files on their server. After a blog post and several tech sites reported on the issue, "Google reached out to us [Nexcloud] and offered to restore the permission, which will give users back the functionality that was lost." Nextcloud is working on an app update and hopes to have it pushed out within a week.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/05/15/208221/google-restores-file-permissions-for-nexcloud?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

According to the Wall Street Journal (paywalled), Meta is delaying the release of its largest Llama 4 AI model, known as "Behemoth," over concerns that it may not be enough of an advance on previous models. "It's another indicator that the AI industry's scaling strategy -- 'just make everything bigger' -- could be hitting a wall," notes Axios. From the report: The Journal says that Behemoth is now expected to be released in the fall or even later. It was originally scheduled to coincide with Meta's Llamacon event last month, then later postponed till June. It's also possible the company could speed up a more limited Behemoth release.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://meta.slashdot.org/story/25/05/15/2022210/meta-delays-behemoth-ai-model-release?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: A lawyer representing Anthropic admitted to using an erroneous citation created by the company's Claude AI chatbot in its ongoing legal battle with music publishers, according to a filing made in a Northern California court on Thursday. Claude hallucinated the citation with "an inaccurate title and inaccurate authors," Anthropic says in the filing, first reported by Bloomberg. Anthropic's lawyers explain that their "manual citation check" did not catch it, nor several other errors that were caused by Claude's hallucinations. Anthropic apologized for the error and called it "an honest citation mistake and not a fabrication of authority." Earlier this week, lawyers representing Universal Music Group and other music publishers accused Anthropic's expert witness -- one of the company's employees, Olivia Chen -- of using Claude to cite fake articles in her testimony. Federal judge, Susan van Keulen, then ordered Anthropic to respond to these allegations. Last week, a California judge slammed a pair of law firms for the undisclosed use of AI after he received a supplemental brief with "numerous false, inaccurate, and misleading legal citations and quotations." The judge imposed $31,000 in sanctions against the law firms and said "no reasonably competent attorney should out-source research and writing" to AI.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://yro.slashdot.org/story/25/05/15/2031207/anthropics-lawyer-forced-to-apologize-after-claude-hallucinated-legal-citation?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

At its second annual Upfront 2025 event yesterday, Netflix announced that it has created interactive mid-roll ads and pause ads that incorporate generative AI. These new ad formats are expected to roll out in 2026. Ars Technica reports: "[Netflix] members pay as much attention to midroll ads as they do to the shows and movies themselves," Amy Reinhard, president of advertising at Netflix, said. Netflix started testing pause ads in July 2024, per The Verge. Speaking to advertisers, Reinhard claimed that ad subscribers spend 41 hours per month on Netflix on average. The new ad formats follow Netflix's launch of its own in-house advertising platform in the US in April. It had previously debuted the platform in Canada and plans to expand it globally by June, per The Verge.

Netflix considers its advertising business to be in its early stages, meaning customers can expect the firm's ad efforts to continue expanding at a faster rate over the coming years. The company plans to double its advertising revenue in 2025. "The foundations of our ads business are in place, and going forward, the pace of progress will be even faster," Reinhard said today. Further reading: Netflix Says Its Ad Tier Now Has 94 Million Monthly Active Users

[ Read more of this story ]( https://slashdot.org/story/25/05/15/2039216/netflix-will-show-generative-ai-ads-midway-through-streams-in-2026?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Microsoft has stopped production of the Surface Laptop Studio 2 and will mark it as end-of-life in June, with no successor currently planned. Tom's Hardware reports: The Surface Laptop Studio 2 is being put out to pasture quietly, much like other devices that the company has sunset. The Surface Studio, a desktop PC that folded down into a creative studio for drawing, was formally discontinued in December without a successor. Microsoft's audio products, the Surface Headphones 2 and Surface Earbuds, have also quietly disappeared.

The Surface Laptop Studio's discontinuance comes at a hazy time for the Surface brand. On the one hand, two new devices -- the Surface Pro 12-inch and Surface Laptop 13-inch -- were just announced and are set to release next week. On the other hand, the lineup lost its champion, former chief Panos Panay, who left Microsoft for Amazon in 2023, reportedly over budget issues and product cancellations. Panay was succeeded by Pavan Davuluri.

Since Panay's departure, the lineup has been cut down to just the Surface Laptop, Surface Pro, and the Surface Go 4, the latter of which is only sold to business customers at the moment. Without the Surface Laptop Studio, Microsoft has removed systems with discrete GPUs from its hardware lineup, potentially alienating creatives and gamers. Prior to the Surface Laptop Studio, Microsoft's powerhouse system was the Surface Book, which combined a tablet with a base featuring a discrete GPU.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/25/05/15/2133241/microsoft-may-have-killed-the-surface-laptop-studio?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

The FBI has issued a warning that cybercriminals have started using AI-generated voice deepfakes in phishing attacks impersonating senior U.S. officials. These attacks, involving smishing and vishing tactics, aim to compromise personal accounts and contacts for further social engineering and financial fraud. BleepingComputer reports: "Since April 2025, malicious actors have impersonated senior U.S. officials to target individuals, many of whom are current or former senior U.S. federal or state government officials and their contacts. If you receive a message claiming to be from a senior U.S. official, do not assume it is authentic," the FBI warned. "The malicious actors have sent text messages and AI-generated voice messages -- techniques known as smishing and vishing, respectively -- that claim to come from a senior U.S. official in an effort to establish rapport before gaining access to personal accounts."

The attackers can gain access to the accounts of U.S. officials by sending malicious links disguised as links designed to move the discussion to another messaging platform. By compromising their accounts, the threat actors can gain access to other government officials' contact information. Next, they can use social engineering to impersonate the compromised U.S. officials to steal further sensitive information and trick targeted contacts into transferring funds. Today's PSA follows a March 2021 FBI Private Industry Notification (PIN) [PDF] warning that deepfakes (including AI-generated or manipulated audio, text, images, or video) would likely be widely employed in "cyber and foreign influence operations" after becoming increasingly sophisticated.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://yro.slashdot.org/story/25/05/15/2138238/fbi-us-officials-targeted-in-voice-deepfake-attacks-since-april?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney said Thursday that Apple has "neither accepted nor rejected" Fortnite's second App Store submission, potentially delaying the game's major update planned for Friday.

Epic initially submitted Fortnite on May 9 following Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers' order for Apple to comply with the original 2021 injunction. After five days without response, Epic withdrew and resubmitted to accommodate the upcoming update. While Apple's guidelines state 90% of submissions are reviewed within 24 hours, this silence is unprecedented.

The legal context remains complex -- the judge's original ruling didn't require Apple to reinstate Fortnite, as she determined Epic had willingly violated agreed-upon rules. Meanwhile, Sweeney is actively pointing out on X that Fortnite knock-offs are flooding the App Store.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://apple.slashdot.org/story/25/05/15/2327216/apple-keeps-fortnite-in-app-store-limbo?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.