After filing for bankruptcy, Norwegian smart home company Futurehome abruptly transitioned its Smarthub II and other devices to a subscription-only model, disabling essential features unless users pay an annual fee. Needless to say, customers aren't too happy with the move as they bought the hardware expecting lifetime functionality and now find their smart homes significantly less smart. Ars Technica reports: Launched in 2016, Futurehome's Smarthub is marketed as a central hub for controlling Internet-connected devices in smart homes. For years, the Norwegian company sold its products, which also include smart thermostats, smart lighting, and smart fire and carbon monoxide alarms, for a one-time fee that included access to its companion app and cloud platform for control and automation. As of June 26, though, those core features require a 1,188 NOK (about $116.56) annual subscription fee, turning the smart home devices into dumb ones if users don't pay up.

"You lose access to controlling devices, configuring; automations, modes, shortcuts, and energy services," a company FAQ page says. You also can't get support from Futurehome without a subscription. "Most" paid features are inaccessible without a subscription, too, the FAQ from Futurehome, which claims to be in 38,000 households, says. After June 26, customers had four weeks to continue using their devices as normal without a subscription. That grace period recently ended, and users now need a subscription for their smart devices to work properly.

Some users are understandably disheartened about suddenly having to pay a monthly fee to use devices they already purchased. More advanced users have also expressed frustration with Futurehome potentially killing its devices' ability to work by connecting to a local device instead of the cloud. In its FAQ, Futurehome says it "cannot guarantee that there will not be changes in the future" around local API access. Futurehome claims that introducing the subscription fee was a necessary move due to its recent bankruptcy. Its FAQ page reads: "Futurehome AS was declared bankrupt on 20 May 2025. The platform and related services were purchased from the bankruptcy estate -- 50 percent by former Futurehome owners and 50 percent by Sikom Connect -- and are now operated by FHSD Connect AS. To secure stable operation, fund product development, and provide high-quality support, we are introducing a new subscription model."

The company says the subscription fee would allow it to provide customers "better functionality, more security, and higher value in the solution you have already invested in."

[ Read more of this story ]( https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/07/28/2211238/bankrupt-futurehome-suddenly-makes-its-smart-home-hub-a-subscription-service?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Anthropic will implement weekly rate limits for Claude subscribers starting August 28 to address users running its Claude Code AI programming tool continuously around the clock and to prevent account sharing violations. The new restrictions will affect Pro subscribers paying $20 monthly and Max plan subscribers paying $100 and $200 monthly, though Anthropic estimates fewer than 5% of current users will be impacted based on existing usage patterns.

Pro users will receive 40 to 80 hours of Sonnet 4 access through Claude Code weekly, while $100 Max subscribers get 140 to 280 hours of Sonnet 4 plus 15 to 35 hours of Opus 4. The $200 Max plan provides 240 to 480 hours of Sonnet 4 and 24 to 40 hours of Opus 4. Claude Code has experienced at least seven outages in the past month due to unprecedented demand.

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An anonymous reader quotes a report from Polygon: In the wake of storefronts like Steam and itch.io curbing the sale of adult games, irate fans have started an organized campaign against the payment processors that they believe are responsible for the crackdown. While the movement is still in its early stages, people are mobilizing with an eye toward overwhelming communication lines at companies like Visa and Mastercard in a way that will make the concern impossible to ignore. On social media sites like Reddit and Bluesky, people are urging one another to get into contact with Visa and Mastercard through emails and phone calls. Visa and Mastercard have become the targets of interest because the affected storefronts both say that their decisions around adult games were motivated by the danger of losing the ability to use major payment processors while selling games. These payment processors have their own rules regarding usage, but they are vaguely defined. But losing infrastructure like this could impact audiences well beyond those who care about sex games, spokespeople for Valve and itch.io said.

In a now-deleted post on the Steam subreddit with over 17,000 upvotes, commenters say that customer service representatives for both payment processors seem to already be aware of the problem. Sometimes, the representatives will say that they've gotten multiple calls on the subject of adult game censorship, but that they can't really do anything about it. The folks applying pressure know that someone at a call center has limited power in a scenario like this one; typically, agents are equipped to handle standard customer issues like payment fraud or credit card loss. But the point isn't to enact change through a specific phone call: It's to cause enough disruption that the ruckus theoretically starts costing payment processors money.

"Emails can be ignored, but a very very long queue making it near impossible for other clients to get in will help a lot as well," reads the top comment on the Reddit thread. In that same thread, people say that they're hanging onto the call even if the operator says that they'll experience multi-hour wait times presumably caused by similar calls gunking up the lines. Beyond the stubbornness factor, the tactic is motivated by the knowledge that most customer service systems will put people who opt for call-backs in a lower priority queue, as anyone who opts in likely doesn't have an emergency going on. "Do both," one commenter suggests. "Get the call back, to gum up the call back queue. Then call in again and wait to gum up the live queue." People are also using email to voice their concerns directly to the executives at both Visa and Mastercard, payment processors that activist group Collective Shout called out by name in their open letter requesting that adult games get pulled. Emails are also getting sent to customer service.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://yro.slashdot.org/story/25/07/28/2223235/visa-and-mastercard-are-getting-overwhelmed-by-gamer-fury-over-censorship?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

A new study analyzing distorted sound waves from the early universe suggests we may live in a massive cosmic void "with roughly 20% lower than the average density of matter," writes Indranil Banik in an article for The Conversation. "Not every physicist is convinced that this is the case. But our recent paper analyzing distorted sounds from the early universe, published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, strongly backs up the idea." Slashdot reader alternative_right shares an excerpt from the report: My colleagues and I previously argued that the Hubble tension might be due to our location within a large void. That's because the sparse amount of matter in the void would be gravitationally attracted to the more dense matter outside it, continuously flowing out of the void. In previous research, we showed that this flow would make it look like the local universe is expanding about 10% faster than expected. That would solve the Hubble tension. But we wanted more evidence. And we know a local void would slightly distort the relation between the BAO angular scale and the redshift due to the faster moving matter in the void and its gravitational effect on light from outside.

So in our new paper, Vasileios Kalaitzidis and I set out to test the predictions of the void model using BAO measurements collected over the last 20 years. We compared our results to models without a void under the same background expansion history. In the void model, the BAO ruler should look larger on the sky at any given redshift. And this excess should become even larger at low redshift (close distance), in line with the Hubble tension. The observations confirm this prediction. Our results suggest that a universe with a local void is about one hundred million times more likely than a cosmos without one, when using BAO measurements and assuming the universe expanded according to the standard model of cosmology informed by the CMB.

Our research shows that the ACDM model without any local void is in "3.8 sigma tension" with the BAO observations. This means the likelihood of a universe without a void fitting these data is equivalent to a fair coin landing heads 13 times in a row. By contrast, the chance of the BAO data looking the way they do in void models is equivalent to a fair coin landing heads just twice in a row. In short, these models fit the data quite well. In the future, it will be crucial to obtain more accurate BAO measurements at low redshift, where the BAO standard ruler looks larger on the sky -- even more so if we are in a void. The average expansion rate so far follows directly from the age of the universe, which we can estimate from the ages of old stars in the Milky Way. A local void would not affect the age of the universe, but some proposals do affect it. These and other probes will shed more light on the Hubble crisis in cosmology.

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PayPal has launched "Pay with Crypto" for U.S. merchants, enabling acceptance of over 100 cryptocurrencies with lower cross-border transaction fees and instant conversion to USD or its stablecoin PYUSD. "Businesses of all sizes face incredible pressure when growing globally, from increased costs for accepting international payments to complex integrations," said Alex Chriss, president and chief executive of PayPal. "Today, we're removing these barriers and helping every business of every size achieve their goals. [...] By enabling seamless cross-border crypto payments, we're breaking longstanding barriers in global commerce." SiliconANGLE reports: Using the new Pay with Crypto, merchants can now accept payments in the form of numerous cryptocurrency tokens, including bitcoin, Ethereum, USD Tether and Solana. The transaction fee rate will be 0.99% for the first year, increasing to 1.5% thereafter. The company said that rate is significantly lower than international credit card fees. "Imagine a shopper in Guatemala buying a special gift from a merchant in Oklahoma City," added Chriss. "Using PayPal's open platform, the business can accept crypto for payments, increase their profit margins, pay lower transaction fees, and get near instant access to proceeds."

Merchants who accept cryptocurrency tokens can instantly convert them to dollars or PYUSD, the company's stablecoin, which is a type of cryptocurrency that maintains parity with USD so that every token is always worth $1. Funds stored as PYUSD on PayPal also earn 4% annual rewards. The company said the new service will roll out for U.S. merchants in the coming weeks. [...] Pay with Crypto will initially support cryptocurrency wallets from Coinbase, OKX, Binance, Kraken, Phantom, MetaMask and Exodus, with more planned.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://slashdot.org/story/25/07/28/2342234/paypal-expands-crypto-payments-for-us-merchants-to-lower-cross-border-fees?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from SFGATE: During the 2010s' boom in on-demand services such as Uber and DoorDash, Wag staked a claim to the market for dog walking. It became a buzzy, high-flying company, at one point gaining a valuation of around $650 million, and grew to offer a whole range of tech products for pet care. But as the years passed, struggles mounted and profits remained elusive. On July 21, Wag filed (PDF) for bankruptcy. To stay alive, the San Francisco-headquartered company is now using bankruptcy court to restructure in what's known as a Chapter 11 process. Its lines of business -- including gig-work dog walking and sitting, pet insurance, and the veterinary tool "Furscription" -- will remain open, according to a news release. If a judge approves Wag's restructuring plan, it will take the company off the public markets and into the private hands of a company called Retriever.

On the same day of the bankruptcy filing, Wag's chief financial officer, Alec Davidian, submitted a document (PDF) supporting and explaining the move. He wrote that Wag's "monthly revenues declined rapidly after March 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic" and pointed to $69.5 million in losses from 2022 through 2024. The losses weren't Wag's only problem. The company had taken out debt in 2022 when it went public, and in that loan agreement, it had set a minimum level of cash Wag would need to have on hand at all times. This year, Wag dropped below that amount, Davidian wrote. Wag also failed to find a third-party deal to get more money, the CFO noted, and its debt obligations are set to mature in August, meaning the company was "facing a dire liquidity crisis." So, Wag opted for the bankruptcy proceeding, in which it plans to eliminate the 2022 debt, which is currently held by Retriever. "Through the Restructuring," Davidian wrote, "[Wag] will emerge from these Chapter 11 Cases a stronger company, with a more sustainable capital structure that is better aligned with [Wag's] present and future operating prospects."

[ Read more of this story ]( https://slashdot.org/story/25/07/28/2359237/dog-walking-startup-wag-files-for-bankruptcy?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Utilities across the U.S. are demanding tech companies pay larger shares of electricity infrastructure costs as AI drives unprecedented data center construction, creating tensions over who bears the financial burden of grid upgrades.

Virginia utility Dominion Energy received requests from data center developers requiring 40 gigawatts of electricity by the end of 2024, enough to power at least 10 million homes, and proposed measures requiring longer-term contracts and guaranteed payments. Ohio became one of the first states to mandate companies pay more connection costs after receiving power requests exceeding 50 times existing data center usage.

Tech giants Microsoft, Google, and Amazon plan to spend $80 billion, $85 billion, and $100 billion respectively this year on AI infrastructure, while utilities worry that grid upgrade costs will increase rates for residential customers.

Further reading: The AI explosion means millions are paying more for electricity

[ Read more of this story ]( https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/25/07/29/138232/ai-boom-sparks-fight-over-soaring-power-costs?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

India has overtaken China to become the top source of smartphones sold in the US, after Apple shifted to assemble more of its iPhones in the South Asian country. From a report: In the quarter through June, India was the largest manufacturer of smartphones shipped to the US for the first time, accounting for 44% of the market, according to Canalys data. Vietnam, home to much of Samsung's production, came in second. China fell from having more than 60% of all estimated shipments a year ago to just 25%.

The stark change comes as Apple ramped up its production in India and smartphone makers "frontload device inventories amid tariff concerns," Canalys researchers wrote. The volume of made-in-India devices more than tripled in the past quarter from a year earlier. Apple's iPhone shipments to the US declined by 11%, reflecting distortions to its usual pattern due to unusually high shipments to stockpile units earlier in the year.

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schwit1 writes: The Apple Manufacturing Academy will be located in downtown Detroit and will be administered by Michigan State University.

The academy will offer workshops on manufacturing and artificial intelligence to small and medium-sized businesses, Apple said.

Trump has called for Apple to move iPhone production to the U.S. and is implementing tariffs that will likely raise the company's costs.

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The Airbus A380, the world's largest commercial passenger jet, faces mounting maintenance challenges as regulatory authorities issue an increasing number of safety directives. The European Union Aviation Safety Agency has listed 95 airworthiness directives for the A380 since January 2020, approximately double the number issued for large Boeing aircraft during the same period.

The directives address problems including leaking escape slides, cracked seals, and a ruptured landing-gear axle. A comprehensive maintenance check of the massive plane requires 60,000 hours of labor, according to aircraft repairer Lufthansa Technik. Airlines remain committed to operating the twin-deck aircraft due to limited large-capacity alternatives, with Boeing's 777X years behind schedule and Airbus unable to produce long-haul A350s quickly enough. British Airways plans to overhaul A380 cabins starting next year, while Emirates intends to keep flying the aircraft until the end of the next decade.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/07/29/168232/the-worlds-biggest-passenger-planes-keep-breaking-down?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader shares a report: Anthropic is nearing a deal to raise as much as $5 billion in a new round of funding that would value the AI startup at $170 billion, according to a person familiar with the matter. Investment firm Iconiq Capital is leading the round, which is expected to total between $3 billion and $5 billion, said the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private information.

Anthropic has also been in discussions with the Qatar Investment Authority and Singapore's sovereign fund GIC about participating in the round, the person said. The new financing would mark a significant jump in valuation for the company and cement its status as one of world's leading AI developers. Anthropic was valued at $61.5 billion in a $3.5 billion round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners earlier this year.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://slashdot.org/story/25/07/29/1642226/anthropic-nears-deal-to-raise-funding-at-170-billion-valuation?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

60% of American adults use AI to search for information, but far fewer have adopted the technology for workplace productivity, according to a new Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll. Only 37% of respondents reported using AI for work tasks, while 40% said they use it for brainstorming ideas.

The survey of 1,437 adults, conducted July 10-14, reveals a significant generational gap in AI adoption. Among adults under 30, 74% use AI for information searches and 62% for generating ideas, compared to just 23% of those over 60 who use it for brainstorming. About one-third of Americans use AI for writing emails, creating or editing images, or entertainment purposes. A quarter use it for shopping, while 16% report using AI for companionship -- a figure that rises to 25% among younger adults.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://slashdot.org/story/25/07/29/1721245/60-of-americans-use-ai-for-search-only-37-for-workplace-tasks-new-poll-finds?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Apple has lost its fourth AI researcher in a month to Meta [non-paywalled source], marking the latest setback to the iPhone maker's AI efforts. From a report: Bowen Zhang, a key multimodal AI researcher at Apple, left the company on Friday and is set to join Meta's recently formed superintelligence team, according to people familiar with the matter. Zhang was part of the Apple foundation models group, or AFM, which built the core technology behind the company's AI platform.

Meta previously lured away the leader of the team, Ruoming Pang, with a compensation package valued at more than $200 million, Bloomberg News has reported. Two other researchers from that group -- Tom Gunter and Mark Lee -- also recently joined Meta. AFM is made up of several dozen engineers and researchers across Cupertino, California, and New York. In response to the job offers from Meta and others, Apple has been marginally increasing the pay of its AFM staffers, whether or not they've threatened to leave, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the moves are private. Still, the pay levels pale in comparison with those of rivals.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://apple.slashdot.org/story/25/07/29/196228/apple-loses-fourth-ai-researcher-in-a-month-to-meta?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Google has admitted its earthquake early warning system failed to accurately alert people during Turkey's deadly quake of 2023. From a report: Ten million people within 98 miles of the epicentre could have been sent Google's highest level alert -- giving up to 35 seconds of warning to find safety. Instead, only 469 "Take Action" warnings were sent out for the first 7.8 magnitude quake.

Google told the BBC half a million people were sent a lower level warning, which is designed for "light shaking", and does not alert users in the same prominent way. The tech giant previously told the BBC the system had "performed well" after an investigation in 2023. The alerts system is available in just under 100 countries -- and is described by Google as a "global safety net" often operating in countries with no other warning system. Google's system, named Android Earthquake Alerts (AEA), is run by the Silicon Valley firm - not individual countries.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/07/29/1917206/google-failed-to-warn-10-million-of-turkey-earthquake-severity?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Opera will file a complaint against Microsoft to Brazilian antitrust authority CADE on Tuesday, alleging the tech giant gives its Edge browser an unfair advantage over competitors. Opera claims Microsoft pre-installs Edge as the default browser across Windows devices and prevents rivals from competing on product merits.

The company's general counsel Aaron McParlan said Microsoft locks browsers like Opera out of preinstallation opportunities and frustrates users' ability to download alternative browsers. Opera, which says it is Brazil's third-most popular PC browser, wants CADE to investigate Microsoft and demand concessions to ensure fair competition.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://slashdot.org/story/25/07/29/204213/opera-accuses-microsoft-of-anti-competitive-edge-tactics?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

skam240 writes: President Donald Trump's administration on Tuesday proposed revoking a scientific finding that has long been the central basis for U.S. action to regulate greenhouse gas emissions and fight climate change.

The proposed Environmental Protection Agency rule would rescind a 2009 declaration that determined that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfare.

The "endangerment finding" is the legal underpinning of a host of climate regulations under the Clean Air Act for motor vehicles, power plants and other pollution sources that are heating the planet.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/07/29/208244/epa-moves-to-repeal-finding-that-allows-climate-regulation?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: The rise of large language models like ChatGPT has led to widespread concern that "everyone is cheating their way through college," as a recent New York magazine article memorably put it. Now, OpenAI is rolling out a new "Study Mode" that it claims is less about providing answers or doing the work for students and more about helping them "build [a] deep understanding" of complex topics.

Study Mode isn't a new ChatGPT model but a series of "custom system instructions" written for the LLM "in collaboration with teachers, scientists, and pedagogy experts to reflect a core set of behaviors that support deeper learning," OpenAI said. Instead of the usual summary of a subject that stock ChatGPT might give -- which one OpenAI employee likened to "a mini textbook chapter" -- Study Mode slowly rolls out new information in a "scaffolded" structure. The mode is designed to ask "guiding questions" in the Socratic style and to pause for periodic "knowledge checks" and personalized feedback to make sure the user understands before moving on. It's unknown how many students will use this guided learning tool instead of just asking ChatGPT to generate answers from the start.

In an early hands-off demo attended by Ars Technica, Study Mode responded to a request to "teach me about game theory" by first asking about the user's overall familiarity with the subject and what they'll be using the information for. ChatGPT introduced a short overview of some core game theory concepts, then paused to ask a question before providing a relevant real-world example. In another example involving a classic "train traveling at speed" math problem, Study Mode resisted multiple simulated attempts by the frustrated "student" to simply ask for the answer and instead tried to gently redirect the conversation to how the available information could be used to generate that answer. An OpenAI representative told Ars that Study Mode will eventually provide direct solutions if asked repeatedly, but the default behavior is more tuned to a Socratic tutoring style. OpenAI said it drew inspiration for Study Mode from "power users" and collaborated with pedagogy experts and college students to help refine its responses. As for whether the mode can be trusted, OpenAI told Ars that "the risk of hallucination is lower with Study Mode because the model processes information in smaller chunks, calibrating along the way."

The current Study Mode prompt does, however, result in some "inconsistent behavior and mistakes across conversations," the company warned.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/07/29/2042244/chatgpts-new-study-mode-is-designed-to-help-you-learn-not-just-give-answers?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Cisco has donated its AGNTCY initiative to the Linux Foundation, aiming to create an open-standard "Internet of Agents" to allow AI agents from different vendors to collaborate seamlessly. The project is backed by tech giants like Google Cloud, Dell, Oracle and Red Hat. "Without such an interoperable standard, companies have been rushing to build specialized AI agents," writes ZDNet's Steven Vaughan-Nichols. "These work in isolated silos that cannot work and play well with each other. This, in turn, makes them less useful for customers than they could be." From the report: AGNTCY was first open-sourced by Cisco in March 2025 and has since attracted support from over 75 companies. By moving it under the Linux Foundation's neutral governance, the hope is that everyone else will jump on the AGNTCY bandwagon, thus making it an industry-wide standard. The Linux Foundation has a long history of providing common ground for what otherwise might be contentious technology battles. The project provides a complete framework to solve the core challenges of multi-agent collaboration:

- Agent Discovery: An Open Agent Schema Framework (OASF) acts like a "DNS for agents," allowing them to find and understand the capabilities of others.
- Agent Identity: A system for cryptographically verifiable identities ensures agents can prove who they are and perform authorized actions securely across different vendors and organizations.
- Agent Messaging: A protocol named Secure Low-latency Interactive Messaging (SLIM) is designed for the complex, multi-modal communication patterns of agents, with built-in support for human-in-the-loop interaction and quantum-safe security.

- Agent Observability: A specialized monitoring framework provides visibility into complex, multi-agent workflows, which is crucial for debugging probabilistic AI systems.

You may well ask, aren't there other emerging AI agency standards? You're right. There are. These include the Agent2Agent (A2A) protocol, which was also recently contributed to the Linux Foundation, and Anthropic's Model Context Protocol (MCP). AGNTCY will help agents using these protocols discover each other and communicate securely. In more detail, it looks like this: AGNTCY enables interoperability and collaboration in three primary ways:

- Discovery: Agents using the A2A protocol and servers using MCP can be listed and found through AGNTCY's directories. This enables different agents to discover each other and understand their functions.

- Messaging: A2A and MCP communications can be transported over SLIM, AGNTCY's messaging protocol designed for secure and efficient agent interaction.

- Observability: The interactions between these different agents and protocols can be monitored using AGNTCY's observability software development kits (SDKs), which increase transparency and help with debugging complex workflows You can view AGNTCY's code and documentary on GitHub.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://linux.slashdot.org/story/25/07/29/2053245/cisco-donates-the-agntcy-project-to-the-linux-foundation?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Jack Dorsey's new app Bitchat is now available on the iOS App Store. The decentralized, peer-to-peer messaging app uses Bluetooth mesh networks for encrypted, ephemeral chats without requiring accounts, servers, or internet access. Dorsey said he built it over a weekend and cautioned that it "has not received external security review and may contain vulnerabilities..." TechCrunch reports: The app's UX is very minimal. There is no log-in system, and you're immediately brought to an instant messaging box, where you can see what nearby users are saying (if anyone is actually around you and using the app) and set your display name, which can be changed at any time. [...] Dorsey has not directly addressed the fake Bitchat apps on the Google Play store, but he did repost another user's X post that said that Bitchat is not yet on Google Play, and to "beware of fakes."

[ Read more of this story ]( https://mobile.slashdot.org/story/25/07/29/216224/jack-dorseys-bluetooth-messaging-app-bitchat-now-on-app-store?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

ZDNet's Steven Vaughan-Nichols shares his list of "what's new and improved" in the latest Linux 6.16 kernel. An anonymous reader shares an excerpt from the report: First, the Rust language is continuing to become more well-integrated into the kernel. At the top of my list is that the kernel now boasts Rust bindings for the driver core and PCI device subsystem. This approach will make it easier to add new Rust-based hardware drivers to Linux. Additionally, new Rust abstractions have been integrated into the Direct Rendering Manager (DRM), particularly for ioctl handling, file/GEM memory management, and driver/device infrastructure for major GPU vendors, such as AMD, Nvidia, and Intel. These changes should reduce vulnerabilities and optimize graphics performance. This will make gamers and AI/ML developers happier.

Linux 6.16 also brings general improvements to Rust crate support. Crate is Rust's packaging format. This will make it easier to build, maintain, and integrate Rust kernel modules into the kernel. For those of you who still love C, don't worry. The vast majority of kernel code remains in C, and Rust is unlikely to replace C soon. In a decade, we may be telling another story. Beyond Rust, this latest release also comes with several major file system improvements. For starters, the XFS filesystem now supports large atomic writes. This capability means that large multi-block write operations are 'atomic,' meaning all blocks are updated or none. This enhances data integrity and prevents data write errors. This move is significant for companies that use XFS for databases and large-scale storage.

Perhaps the most popular Linux file system, Ext4, is also getting many improvements. These boosts include faster commit paths, large folio support, and atomic multi-fsblock writes for bigalloc filesystems. What these improvements mean, if you're not a file-system nerd, is that we should see speedups of up to 37% for sequential I/O workloads. If your Linux laptop doubles as a music player, another nice new feature is that you can now stream your audio over USB even while the rest of your system is asleep. That capability's been available in Android for a while, but now it's part of mainline Linux.

If security is a top priority for you, the 6.16 kernel now supports Intel Trusted Execution Technology (TXT) and Intel Trusted Domain Extensions (TDX). This addition, along with Linux's improved support for AMD Secure Encrypted Virtualization and Secure Memory Encryption (SEV-SNP), enables you to encrypt your software's memory in what's known as confidential computing. This feature improves cloud security by encrypting a user's virtual machine memory, meaning someone who cracks a cloud can't access your data. Linux 6.16 also delivers several chip-related upgrades. It introduces support for Intel's Advanced Performance Extensions (APX), doubling x86 general-purpose registers from 16 to 32 and boosting performance on next-gen CPUs like Lunar Lake and Granite Rapids Xeon. Additionally, the new CONFIG_X86_NATIVE_CPU option allows users to build processor-optimized kernels for greater efficiency.

Support for Nvidia's AI-focused Blackwell GPUs has also been improved, and updates to TCP/IP with DMABUF help offload networking tasks to GPUs and accelerators. While these changes may go unnoticed by everyday users, high-performance systems will see gains and OpenVPN users may finally experience speeds that challenge WireGuard.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://linux.slashdot.org/story/25/07/29/2118206/linux-616-brings-faster-file-systems-improved-confidential-memory-support-and-more-rust-support?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz has activated the National Guard to assist the City of Saint Paul after a cyberattack crippled the city's digital services on Friday. "The city is currently working with local, state, and federal partners to investigate the attack and restore full functionality, and says that emergency services have been unaffected," reports BleepingComputer. "However, online payments are currently unavailable, and some services in libraries and recreation centers are temporarily unavailable." From the report: The attack has persisted through the weekend, causing widespread disruptions across the city after affecting St. Paul's digital services and critical systems. "St. Paul officials have been working around the clock since discovering the cyberattack, closely coordinating with Minnesota Information Technology Services and an external cybersecurity vendor. Unfortunately, the scale and complexity of this incident exceeded both internal and commercial response capabilities," reads an emergency executive order (PDF) signed on Tuesday.

"As a result, St. Paul has requested cyber protection support from the Minnesota National Guard to help address this incident and make sure that vital municipal services continue without interruption." "The decision to deploy cyber protection support from the Minnesota National Guard comes at the city's request, after the cyberattack's impact exceeded St. Paul's incident response capacity. This will ensure the continuity of vital services for Saint Paul residents, as well as their security and safety while ongoing disruptions are being mitigated. "We are committed to working alongside the City of Saint Paul to restore cybersecurity as quickly as possible," Governor Walz said on Tuesday. "The Minnesota National Guard's cyber forces will collaborate with city, state, and federal officials to resolve the situation and mitigate lasting impacts."

[ Read more of this story ]( https://it.slashdot.org/story/25/07/29/2229221/minnesota-activates-national-guard-after-st-paul-cyberattack?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

YouTube is rolling out age-estimation technology in the U.S. to identify teen users in order to provide a more age-appropriate experience. TechCrunch reports: When YouTube identifies a user as a teen, it introduces new protections and experiences, which include disabling personalized advertising, safeguards that limit repetitive viewing of certain types of content, and enabling digital well-being tools such as screen time and bedtime reminders, among others. These protections already exist on YouTube, but have only been applied to those who verified themselves as teens, not those who may have withheld their real age. [...]

If the new system incorrectly identifies a user as under 18 when they are not, YouTube says the user will be given the option to verify their age with a credit card, government ID, or selfie. Only users who have been directly verified through this method or whose age has been inferred to be over 18 will be able to view the age-restricted content on the platform. The machine learning-powered technology will begin to roll out over the next few weeks to a small set of U.S. users and will then be monitored before rolling out more widely, the company says. [...]

YouTube isn't sharing specifics about the signals it's using to infer a user's age, but notes that it will look at some data like the YouTube activity and the longevity of a user's account to make a determination if the user is under 18. The new system will apply only to signed-in users, as signed-out users already cannot access age-restricted content, and will be available across platforms, including web, mobile, and connected TV.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/07/29/2237252/youtube-rolls-out-age-estimation-tech-to-identify-us-teens-apply-additional-protections?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Longtime Slashdot reader schwit1 shares a report from Business Insider: Apple's new spam text filtering feature could end up being a multimillion-dollar headache for political campaigns. iOS 26 includes a new feature that allows users to filter text messages from unrecognized numbers into an "Unknown Senders" folder without sending a notification. Users can then go to that filter and hit "Mark as Known" or delete the message.

In a memo seen by BI and first reported by Punchbowl News, the official campaign committee in charge of electing GOP senators warned that the new feature could lead to a steep drop in revenue. "That change has profound implications for our ability to fundraise, mobilize voters, and run digital campaigns," reads a July 24 memo from the National Republican Senatorial Committee, or NRSC. The memo estimated that the new feature could cost the group $25 million in lost revenue and lead to a $500 million loss for GOP campaigns as a whole, based on the estimate that 70% of small-dollar donations come from text messages and that iPhones make up 60% of mobile devices in the US. Apple's 'rules' for this new spam text filtering feature "aren't unclear at all," notes Daring Fireball's John Gruber. "If a sender is not in your saved contacts and you've never sent or responded to a text message from them, they're considered 'unknown.' That's it."

"The feature isn't even really new -- you've been able to filter messages like this in Messages for years now, but what iOS 26 changes is that it now has a new more prominent -- better, IMO -- interface for switching between filter views." It's also worth noting that there's no filtering by message content, so all political parties will be affected by this feature. "[T]here's no reason to believe that Republican candidates and groups will be more affected by this than Democratic ones," writes Gruber.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://politics.slashdot.org/story/25/07/29/2259223/apples-ios-26-text-filters-could-cost-political-campaigns-millions-of-dollars?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: An artificial intelligence data center that would use more electricity than every home in Wyoming combined before expanding to as much as five times that size will be built soon near Cheyenne, according to the city's mayor. "It's a game changer. It's huge," Mayor Patrick Collins said Monday. With cool weather -- good for keeping computer temperatures down -- and an abundance of inexpensive electricity from a top energy-producing state, Wyoming's capital has become a hub of computing power. The city has been home to Microsoft data centers since 2012. An $800 million data center announced last year by Facebook parent company Meta Platforms is nearing completion, Collins said.

The latest data center, a joint effort between regional energy infrastructure company Tallgrass and AI data center developer Crusoe, would begin at 1.8 gigawatts of electricity and be scalable to 10 gigawatts, according to a joint company statement. A gigawatt can power as many as 1 million homes. But that's more homes than Wyoming has people. The least populated state, Wyoming, has about 590,000 people. And it's a major exporter of energy. A top producer of coal, oil and gas, Wyoming ranks behind only Texas, New Mexico and Pennsylvania as a top net energy-producing state, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Accounting for fossil fuels, Wyoming produces about 12 times more energy than it consumes. The state exports almost three-fifths of the electricity it produces, according to the EIA. But this proposed data center is so big, it would have its own dedicated energy from gas generation and renewable sources, according to Collins and company officials. [...] While data centers are energy-hungry, experts say companies can help reduce their effect on the climate by powering them with renewable energy rather than fossil fuels. Even so, electricity customers might see their bills increase as utilities plan for massive data projects on the grid. The data center would be built several miles (kilometers) south of Cheyenne off U.S. 85 near the Colorado state line. State and local regulators would need to sign off on the project, but Collins was optimistic construction could begin soon. "I believe their plans are to go sooner rather than later," Collins said.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/25/07/29/2246259/cheyenne-to-host-massive-ai-datacenter-using-more-electricity-than-all-wyoming-homes-combined?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader shares an analysis: In most major aviation markets, including the U.S. and Europe, competition is an oligopolistic affair, with several large airlines competing for market share. India's domestic sector, however, is increasingly characterized by the ascent of a single airline.

Low-cost carrier IndiGo has achieved an extraordinary concentration of the market, capturing approximately 64.4% of all passenger traffic as of May. More strikingly, the airline operates with a near-monopoly on 66% of its domestic routes, facing little to no direct competition in a significant portion of its network.

This position is the culmination of a decade-long expansion that saw the exit of rivals like Jet Airways and GoAir. Today, its remaining competitors continue to struggle; SpiceJet's domestic market share has fallen to just 2% while it operates a reduced fleet of only 19 aircraft. Air India, despite its acquisition by the Tata Group in 2022, has been slow in its restructuring and continues to cede domestic ground, with the flag carrier remaining unprofitable.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/07/30/0612248/indias-one-airline-state?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Promising Phase 3 trial results from Apnimed suggest a potential game-changing oral pill for sleep apnea could offer a simpler, more tolerable alternative for keeping airways open during sleep. The New York Times reports: For decades, the primary treatment for sleep apnea has been continuous positive airway pressure (or CPAP). Before bed, those with the condition put on a face mask that is connected to a CPAP machine, which keeps the airway open by forcing air into it. The machines are effective, but many find them so noisy, cumbersome or uncomfortable that they end up abandoning them. Now, a more appealing option may be on the way, according to a news release from Apnimed, a pharmaceutical company focused on treating sleep apnea. On Wednesday, the company announced a second round of positive Phase 3 clinical trial results for a first-of-its-kind oral pill that can be taken just before bedtime to help keep a person's airway open.

The full results have not yet been released, or published in a peer-reviewed journal. But the findings build on past, similarly positive conclusions from trials and studies. Sleep experts say that what they're seeing in reports so far makes them think the pill could be a game changer. Dr. Phyllis Zee, a sleep doctor and researcher at Northwestern Medicine who was not involved with the trial, said that if approved, the drug could transform the lives of many. That includes not only those who can't tolerate CPAP machines, but also those who can't -- or prefer not to -- use other interventions, such as other types of oral devices or weight loss medications. (Excess weight is a risk factor for sleep apnea.)

[ Read more of this story ]( https://science.slashdot.org/story/25/07/30/0314210/a-pill-for-sleep-apnea-could-be-on-the-horizon?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Longtime Slashdot reader ndsurvivor shares a report from MIT: MIT physicists have performed an idealized version of one of the most famous experiments in quantum physics. Their findings demonstrate, with atomic-level precision, the dual yet evasive nature of light. They also happen to confirm that Albert Einstein was wrong about this particular quantum scenario. The experiment in question is the double-slit experiment, which was first performed in 1801 by the British scholar Thomas Young to show how light behaves as a wave. Today, with the formulation of quantum mechanics, the double-slit experiment is now known for its surprisingly simple demonstration of a head-scratching reality: that light exists as both a particle and a wave. Stranger still, this duality cannot be simultaneously observed. Seeing light in the form of particles instantly obscures its wave-like nature, and vice versa.

[...] Now, MIT physicists have performed the most "idealized" version of the double-slit experiment to date. Their version strips down the experiment to its quantum essentials. They used individual atoms as slits, and used weak beams of light so that each atom scattered at most one photon. By preparing the atoms in different quantum states, they were able to modify what information the atoms obtained about the path of the photons. The researchers thus confirmed the predictions of quantum theory: The more information was obtained about the path (i.e. the particle nature) of light, the lower the visibility of the interference pattern was. They demonstrated what Einstein got wrong. Whenever an atom is "rustled" by a passing photon, the wave interference is diminished. "Einstein and Bohr would have never thought that this is possible, to perform such an experiment with single atoms and single photons," says Wolfgang Ketterle, the John D. MacArthur Professor of Physics and leader of the MIT team. "What we have done is an idealized Gedanken experiment." Their results appear in the journal Physical Review Letters.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://science.slashdot.org/story/25/07/30/0322225/famous-double-slit-experiment-holds-up-when-stripped-to-its-quantum-essentials?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNBC: Google executives are pushing employees to act with more urgency in their use of artificial intelligence as the company looks for ways to cut costs. That was the message at an all-hands meeting last week, featuring CEO Sundar Pichai and Brian Saluzzo, who runs the teams building the technical foundation for Google's flagship products. "Anytime you go through a period of extraordinary investment, you respond by adding a lot of headcount, right?" Pichai said, according to audio obtained by CNBC. "But in this AI moment, I think we have to accomplish more by taking advantage of this transition to drive higher productivity. [...] We are competing with other companies in the world," Pichai said at the meeting. "There will be companies which will become more efficient through this moment in terms of employee productivity, which is why I think it's important to focus on that." [...]

"We are going to be going through a period of much higher investment and I think we have to be frugal with our resources, and I would strive to be more productive and efficient as a company," Pichai said, adding that he's "very optimistic" about how Google is doing. At the meeting, Saluzzo highlighted a number of tools the company is building for software engineers, or SWEs, to help "everybody at Google be more AI-savvy." "We feel the urgency to really quickly and urgently get AI into more of the coding workflows to address top needs so you see a much more rapid increase in velocity," Saluzzo said. Saluzzo said Google has a portfolio of AI products available to employees "so folks can go faster." He mentioned an internal site called "AI Savvy Google" which has courses, toolkits and learning sessions, including some for individual product areas.

Google's engineering education team, which develops courses for internal and external use, partnered with DeepMind on a training called "Building with Gemini" that the company will start promoting soon, Saluzzo said. He also referenced a new internal AI coding tool called Cider that helps software engineers with various aspects of the development process. Since May, when the company first introduced Cider, 50% of users tap the service on a weekly basis, Saluzzo said. Regarding Google's internal AI tools, Saluzzo said that employees should "expect them to continuously get better" and that "they'll become a pretty integral part of most SWE work."

[ Read more of this story ]( https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/07/30/0333248/google-execs-say-employees-have-to-be-more-ai-savvy?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Mark Zuckerberg said Wednesday that Meta's AI systems have begun improving themselves over the past few months, calling the development "slow for now, but undeniable" and declaring that superintelligence is now within reach. The Meta CEO staked out the company's vision in a blog post for what he termed "personal superintelligence" -- AI that helps individuals achieve their goals rather than replacing human work entirely.

Zuckerberg drew a sharp line between Meta's approach and that of other companies in the field, arguing that competitors want superintelligence "directed centrally towards automating all valuable work, and then humanity will live on a dole of its output." Meta's version would give people their own superintelligent assistants that know them deeply and help them create, experience adventures, and become better friends.

Zuckerberg envisions smart glasses as the primary computing device, understanding context through what users see and hear throughout their day. The next few years represent a critical juncture, Zuckerberg wrote, calling the rest of this decade "the decisive period for determining the path this technology will take."

[ Read more of this story ]( https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/07/30/1359201/zuckerberg-says-metas-ai-systems-have-begun-improving-themselves-and-developing-superintelligence-is-now-in-sight?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Manager engagement has plummeted to its lowest level since tracking began, with only 27% of managers globally reporting they feel involved and enthusiastic about their work, according to Gallup's annual State of the Global Workplace report. The 3-percentage-point decline from 2023 marks an unprecedented drop in manager satisfaction.

Overall employee engagement fell to 21% in 2024 from 23% the previous year, representing only the second decline in 15 years of data collection. The last drop occurred during 2020 COVID lockdowns. Female managers experienced the steepest decline at 7 percentage points, while younger managers fell 5 points. Managers now oversee nearly three times as many employees as in 2017, yet only 44% have received managerial training.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://slashdot.org/story/25/07/30/1440256/only-27-of-managers-worldwide-feel-engaged-at-work?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

JPMorgan's proposed fees for customer data access would cost fintech startups between 60 and 100% of their annual revenue "just from one bank," according to a trade group representing the affected firms. Steve Boms, executive director of the Financial Data and Technology Association, said the charges would apply across all 30 companies in his group that received pricing notices from the nation's largest bank. The trade association, whose members include Plaid, Fiserv and Intuit, called JPMorgan's move a "pure and simple" attempt to kill competition that would "put third parties out of business altogether."

The fees could take effect in September, ending more than a decade of free data access that fintech companies have used to build their business models. JPMorgan can now charge for data access after the Trump administration changed Consumer Financial Protection Bureau rules that previously prohibited such fees. The Financial Technology Association has taken the dispute to federal courts seeking to restore the Biden-era protections, while crypto trade groups have written directly to President Trump warning the fees would hurt digital currency companies.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://slashdot.org/story/25/07/30/1456243/jpmorgan-spooks-fintechs-with-plans-to-charge-for-access-to-customer-data?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

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

That's not a small number. These are not minor bugs, either. We're talking about real vulnerabilities, with many falling under the OWASP Top 10, which highlights the most dangerous issues in modern web applications. The report found that when AI was given the option to write secure or insecure code, it picked the wrong path nearly half the time.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://developers.slashdot.org/story/25/07/30/150216/ai-code-generators-are-writing-vulnerable-software-nearly-half-the-time-analysis-finds?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.