US Fertility Rate Falls To Lowest In a Century
An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNN: The fertility rate in the United States has been trending down for decades, and a new report shows that another drop in births in 2023 brought the rate down to the lowest it’s been in more than century. There were about 3.6 million babies born in 2023, or 54.4 live births for every 1,000 females ages 15 to 44, according to provisional da … ⌘ Read more

Vast DNA Tree of Life For Plants Revealed By Global Science Team
An international team of scientists used 1.8 billion letters of genetic code from more than 9,500 species covering almost 8,000 known flowering plant genera to create the most up-to-date understanding of the flowering plant tree of life. The research has been published in the journal Nature. Phys.Org reports: The major milestone for plant science … ⌘ Read more

Airlines Required To Refund Passengers For Canceled, Delayed Flights
Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg announced new rules for the airline industry that will require airlines to automatically give cash refunds to passengers for canceled and significantly delayed flights. They will also require airlines to give cash refunds if your bags are lost and not delivered within 12 hours.

“This i … ⌘ Read more

Almost Every Chinese Keyboard App Has a Security Flaw That Reveals What Users Type
An anonymous reader quotes a report from MIT Technology Review: Almost all keyboard apps used by Chinese people around the world share a security loophole that makes it possible to spy on what users are typing. The vulnerability, which allows the keystroke data that these apps send to the cloud to be intercepted, … ⌘ Read more

Manga Site Blocks Adult Content, But Only For US and UK Users
Samantha Cole reports via 404 Media: A Japan-based online art platform is banning kink content for users based in the US and UK, as laws in these countries continue to tighten around sites that allow erotic content. Pixiv is an image gallery site where artists primarily share illustrations, manga, and novels. The site announced on April 22 that … ⌘ Read more

Apple Reportedly Developing Its Own Custom Silicon For AI Servers
Hartley Charlton reports via MacRumors: Apple is said to be developing its own AI server processor using TSMC’s 3nm process, targeting mass production by the second half of 2025. According to a post by the Weibo user known as “Phone Chip Expert,” Apple has ambitious plans to design its own artificial intelligence server processor. The user, wh … ⌘ Read more

Google Delays Third-Party Cookie Demise Yet Again
Google is delaying the end of third-party cookies in Chrome – again. This marks the third time Google pushed back its original deadline set in January 2020, when the company said it would phase out third-party cookies “within two years” to improve internet security. Digiday reports: The announcement was made on Tuesday ahead of quarterly reports from Google and the ever-watc … ⌘ Read more

‘ArcaneDoor’ Cyberspies Hacked Cisco Firewalls To Access Government Networks
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Wired: Network security appliances like firewalls are meant to keep hackers out. Instead, digital intruders are increasingly targeting them as the weak link that lets them pillage the very systems those devices are meant to protect. In the case of one hacking campaign over recent months … ⌘ Read more

Taser Company Axon Is Selling AI That Turns Body Cam Audio Into Police Reports
Axon on Tuesday announced a new tool called Draft One that uses artificial intelligence built on OpenAI’s GPT-4 Turbo model to transcribe audio from body cameras and automatically turn it into a police report. Axon CEO Rick Smith told Forbes that police officers will then be able to review the document to ensure accuracy. F … ⌘ Read more

Meta Opens Quest Operating System To Third-Party Device Makers
Similar to the way Google makes its mobile OS Android open source, Meta announced it is opening up its Quest headset’s operating system to rival device makers. Reuters reports: The move will allow partner companies to build their headsets using Meta Horizon OS, a rebranded operating system that brings capabilities like gesture recognition, passthroug … ⌘ Read more

Updating California’s Grid For EVs May Cost Up To $20 Billion
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Two researchers at the University of California, Davis – Yanning Li and Alan Jenn – have determined that nearly two-thirds of [California’s] feeder lines don’t have the capacity that will likely be needed for car charging. Updating to handle the rising demand might set its utilities back as much as … ⌘ Read more

Lenovo First To Implement LPCAMM2 in Laptop
Lenovo’s latest ThinkPad P1 Gen 7 laptop is set to be the first to use the new LPCAMM2 memory form factor, the successor to SODIMM sticks. From a report: While Lenovo has largely focused on the AI performance of its new laptop, which is equipped with an Intel Core Ultra CPU and Nvidia RTX 3000 Ada GPU, the company also noted that its device was the first in the world to use the LPCAMM2 mem … ⌘ Read more

HashiCorp Reportedly Being Acquired By IBM [UPDATE]
According to the Wall Street Journal, a deal for IBM to acquire HashiCorp could materialize in the next few days. Shares of HashiCorp jumped almost 20% on the news.

UPDATE 4/24/24: IBM has confirmed the deal valued at $6.4 billion. “IBM will pay $35 per share for HashiCorp, a 42.6% premium to Monday’s closing price,” reports Reuters. “The acquisition will be funded by cash on h … ⌘ Read more

Adobe’s Impressive AI Upscaling Project Makes Blurry Videos Look HD
Adobe researchers have developed a new generative AI model called VideoGigaGAN that can upscale blurry videos at up to eight times their original resolution. From a report: Introduced in a paper published on April 18th, Adobe claims VideoGigaGAN is superior to other Video Super Resolution (VSR) methods as it can provide more fine-grained det … ⌘ Read more

Google-Backed Glance Pilots Android Lockscreen Platform in US
Glance, which operates a popular lockscreen platform targeting Android smartphones, is setting its sights on the U.S. market. From a report: The Indian startup recently commenced a pilot program in partnership with Motorola and Verizon in the U.S., with plans for a full launch in the country later this year, sources familiar with the matter told TechCrunch. … ⌘ Read more

Steam Closes Early Access Playtime Loophole
An anonymous reader shares a report: “Early Access” was once a novel, quirky thing, giving a select set of Steam PC games a way to involve enthusiastic fans in pre-alpha-level play-testing and feedback. Now loads of games launch in various forms of Early Access, in a wide variety of readiness. It’s been a boon for games like Baldur’s Gate 3, which came a long way across years of Early A … ⌘ Read more

Apple Releases OpenELM: Small, Open Source AI Models Designed To Run On-device
Just as Google, Samsung and Microsoft continue to push their efforts with generative AI on PCs and mobile devices, Apple is moving to join the party with OpenELM, a new family of open source large language models (LLMs) that can run entirely on a single device rather than having to connect to cloud servers. From a repor … ⌘ Read more

Apple Releases OpenELM: Small, Open Source AI Models Designed To Run On-device
Just as Google, Samsung and Microsoft continue to push their efforts with generative AI on PCs and mobile devices, Apple is moving to join the party with OpenELM, a new family of open source large language models (LLMs) that can run entirely on a single device rather than having to connect to cloud servers. From a repor … ⌘ Read more

Framework Won’t Be Just a Laptop Company Anymore
Today, Framework is the modular repairable laptop company. Tomorrow, it wants to be a consumer electronics company, period. From a report: That’s one of the biggest reasons it just raised another $18 million in funding – it wants to expand beyond the laptop into “additional product categories.” Framework CEO Nirav Patel tells me that has always been the plan. The company or … ⌘ Read more

‘The Man Who Killed Google Search’
Edward Zitron, citing emails released as part of the Department of Justice’s antitrust case against Google, writes about Prabhakar Raghavan: And Raghavan – a manager, hired by Sundar Pichai, a former McKinsey man and a manager by trade – is an example of everything wrong with the tech industry. Despite his history as a true computer scientist with actual academic credentials, Raghavan chose to bulldoze ac … ⌘ Read more

Windows 11 Now Comes With Its Own Adware
An anonymous reader shares a report: It used to be that you could pay for a retail version of Windows 11 and expect it to be ad-free, but those days are apparently finito. The latest update to Windows 11 (KB5036980) comes out this week and includes ads for apps in the “recommended” section of the Start Menu, one of the most oft-used parts of the OS. “The Recommended section of the Start menu w … ⌘ Read more

Diamond Market Shows Serious Cracks From Man-Made Stones
An anonymous reader shares a report: Diamonds may be forever but they are also seriously on sale. Natural rough diamond prices have collapsed 26 per cent in the past couple of years. Tepid US and Chinese demand for diamond jewellery hasn’t helped. But most ring fingers point at the increasing popularity of cheaper laboratory grown diamonds (LGD). This fracturing of t … ⌘ Read more

Diamond Market Shows Serious Cracks From Man-Made Stones
An anonymous reader shares a report: Diamonds may be forever but they are also seriously on sale. Natural rough diamond prices have collapsed 26 per cent in the past couple of years. Tepid US and Chinese demand for diamond jewellery hasn’t helped. But most ring fingers point at the increasing popularity of cheaper laboratory grown diamonds (LGD). This fracturing of t … ⌘ Read more

Biden Signs TikTok ‘Divest or Ban’ Bill Into Law
President Joe Biden signed a foreign aid package that includes a bill that would ban TikTok if China-based parent company ByteDance fails to divest the app within a year. The Verge: The divest-or-ban bill is now law, starting the clock for ByteDance to make its move. The company has an initial nine months to sort out a deal, though the president could extend that another three mo … ⌘ Read more

Qualcomm Is Cheating On Their Snapdragon X Elite/Pro Benchmarks
An anonymous reader shares a report: Qualcomm is cheating on the Snapdragon X Plus/Elite benchmarks given to OEMs and the press. SemiAccurate doesn’t use these words lightly but there is no denying what multiple sources are telling us. […] Then there were the actual ‘briefings’ for the X Pro SoC. To call them pathetic is giving them more than their … ⌘ Read more

NVIDIA To Acquire Run:ai
Nvidia, in a blog post: To help customers make more efficient use of their AI computing resources, NVIDIA today announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Run:ai, a Kubernetes-based workload management and orchestration software provider. Customer AI deployments are becoming increasingly complex, with workloads distributed across cloud, edge and on-premises data center infrastructure.

Managing and orches … ⌘ Read more

NVIDIA To Acquire Run:ai
Nvidia, in a blog post: To help customers make more efficient use of their AI computing resources, NVIDIA today announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Run:ai, a Kubernetes-based workload management and orchestration software provider. Customer AI deployments are becoming increasingly complex, with workloads distributed across cloud, edge and on-premises data center infrastructure.

Managing and orches … ⌘ Read more

Veteran PC Game ‘Sopwith’ Celebrates 40th Anniversary
Longtime Slashdot reader sfraggle writes: Biplane shoot-‘em up, Sopwith, is celebrating 40 years today since its first release back in 1984. The game is one of the oldest PC games still in active development today, originating as an MS-DOS game for the original IBM PC. The 40th anniversary site has a detailed history of how the game was written as a tech demo for the n … ⌘ Read more

Flame-Throwing Robot Dog Now Available Under $10,000
Okian Warrior writes: For $10,000, you can now get a flamethrower mounted on a robotic dog. Just load the webpage and scroll down. I saw this on the news today. *Definitely* we need to have a conversation about where AI is going. The robot, called the Thermonator, is constructed by Ohio flame throwing manufacturer Throwflame and features one of the company’s ARC fla … ⌘ Read more

US Breaks Ground On Its First-Ever High-Speed Rail
Construction has begun on a $12 billion high-speed rail project to connect Las Vegas and Los Angeles by the end of the decade. The project, backed by $3 billion in federal support, aims to reduce travel time to under two hours and significantly cut greenhouse gas emissions. Popular Science reports: Brightline expects its trains will depart every 40 minutes from a station ou … ⌘ Read more

US Bans Noncompete Agreements For Nearly All Jobs
The Federal Trade Commission narrowly voted Tuesday to ban nearly all noncompetes, employment agreements that typically prevent workers from joining competing businesses or launching ones of their own. From a report: The FTC received more than 26,000 public comments in the months leading up to the vote. Chair Lina Khan referenced on Tuesday some of the stories she had heard f … ⌘ Read more

Generative AI Arrives In the Gene Editing World of CRISPR
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the New York Times: Generative A.I. technologies can write poetry and computer programs or create images of teddy bears and videos of cartoon characters that look like something from a Hollywood movie. Now, new A.I. technology is generating blueprints for microscopic biological mechanisms that can edit your DNA, poin … ⌘ Read more

Try Something New To Stop the Days Whizzing Past, Researchers Suggest
Nicola Davis reports via The Guardian: If every day appears to go in a blur, try seeking out new and interesting experiences, researchers have suggested, after finding memorable images appear to dilate time. Researchers have previously found louder experiences seem to last longer, while focusing on the clock also makes time dilate, or … ⌘ Read more

Oracle Is Moving Its World Headquarters To Nashville
Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison said Tuesday that the company is moving its world headquarters to Nashville, Tennessee, to be closer to a major health-care epicenter. CNBC reports: In a wide-ranging conversation with Bill Frist, a former U.S. Senate Majority Leader, Ellison said Oracle is moving a “huge campus” to Nashville, “which will ultimately be our world headq … ⌘ Read more

Change Healthcare Finally Admits It Paid Ransomware Hackers
Andy Greenberg reports via Wired: More than two months after the start of a ransomware debacle whose impact ranks among the worst in the history of cybersecurity, the medical firm Change Healthcare finally confirmed what cybercriminals, security researchers, and Bitcoin’s blockchain had already made all too clear: that it did indeed pay a ransom to the hacke … ⌘ Read more

What Comes After OLED? Meet QDEL
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Quantum dots are already moving in the premium display category, particularly through QD-OLED TVs and monitors. The next step could be QDEL, short for “quantum dot electroluminescent,” also known as NanoLED, screens. Not to be confused with the QLED (quantum light emitting diode) tech already available in TVs, QDEL displays don’t have a backlight. … ⌘ Read more

The Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses Have Multimodel AI Now
The Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses now feature support for multimodal AI – without the need for a projector or $24 monthly fee. (We’re looking at you, Humane AI.) With the new update, the Meta AI assistant will be able to analyze what you’re seeing, and it’ll give you smart, helpful answers or suggestions. The Verge reports: First off, there are some expectations that ne … ⌘ Read more

HashiCorp Reportedly Being Acquired By IBM
According to the Wall Street Journal, a deal for IBM to acquire HashiCorp could materialize in the next few days. Shares of HashiCorp jumped almost 20% on the news. CNBC reports: Developers use HashiCorp’s software to set up and manage infrastructure in public clouds that companies such as Amazon
and Microsoft operate. Organizations also pay HashiCorp for managing security credentials. Founded … ⌘ Read more

Ex-Amazon Exec Claims She Was Asked To Ignore Copyright Law in Race To AI
A lawsuit is alleging Amazon was so desperate to keep up with the competition in generative AI it was willing to breach its own copyright rules. From a report: The allegation emerges from a complaint accusing the tech and retail mega-corp of demoting, and then dismissing, a former high-flying AI scientist after it discovered she w … ⌘ Read more

Linux Can Finally Run Your Car’s Safety Systems and Driver-Assistance Features
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: There’s a new Linux distro on the scene today, and it’s a bit specialized. Its development was led by the automotive electronics supplier Elektrobit, and it’s the first open source OS that complies with the automotive industry’s functional safety requirements. [… … ⌘ Read more

iPhone Sales Drop 19% in China
Apple’s iPhone sales dropped sharply in China in the first quarter of this year as the company saw strong competition from domestic brand Huawei, according to a new report from market research firm Counterpoint Research. CNBC: Apple saw sales of its iPhones fall 19.1% in the first three months of the year, Counterpoint’s data showed, as Chinese telecommunications and consumer electronics giant Huawei saw a resur … ⌘ Read more

AI Is Poisoning Reddit To Promote Products and Game Google With ‘Parasite SEO’
An anonymous reader shares a report: For years, people who have found Google search frustrating have been adding “Reddit” to the end of their search queries. This practice is so common that Google even acknowledged the phenomenon in a post announcing that it will be scraping Reddit posts to train its AI. And so, naturally, … ⌘ Read more

How GM Tricked Millions of Drivers Into Being Spied On
General Motors (GM) has been selling data about the driving behavior of millions of people to insurance companies, leading to higher premiums for some drivers, according to a recent investigation. The affected drivers were not informed about the tracking, which was carried out through GM’s OnStar connected services plan and the Smart Driver program. The New York Time … ⌘ Read more

Apple Cuts Vision Pro Shipments As Demand Falls ‘Sharply Beyond Expectations’
An anonymous reader shares a report: Apple has dropped the number of Vision Pro units that it plans to ship in 2024, going from an expected 700 to 800k units to just 400k to 450k units, according to Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. Orders have been scaled back before the Vision Pro has launched in markets outside of the United … ⌘ Read more

FTC To Vote On Noncompete Ban
The Federal Trade Commission is set to vote Tuesday afternoon on a proposal to ban noncompete agreements, which prevent workers from taking positions at competitors for a period of time after they leave a job. From a report: The ban could be a win for workers – particularly at the low end of the income scale. Critics of these agreements say they stifle innovation and wage growth by restricting workers’ ability to … ⌘ Read more

No One Buys Books Any More
The U.S. publishing industry is driven by celebrity authors and repeat bestsellers, according to testimony from a blocked merger between Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster. Only 50 authors sell over 500,000 copies annually, with 96% of books selling under 1,000 copies. Publishing houses spend most of their advance money on celebrity books, which along with backlist titles like The Bible, account for the bulk of th … ⌘ Read more

Fedora Linux 40 Officially Released
prisoninmate writes: Fedora Linux 40 distribution has been officially released – powered by the latest Linux 6.8 kernel series, and featuring the GNOME 46 and KDE Plasma 6 desktop environments, reports 9to5Linux: “Powered by the latest and greatest Linux 6.8 kernel series, the Fedora Linux 40 release ships with the GNOME 46 desktop environment for the flagship Fedora Workstation edition and the KDE Pl … ⌘ Read more

China’s Ageing Tech Workers Hit By ‘Curse of 35’
Chinese tech giant Kuaishou is laying off employees in their mid-30s as part of a company-wide restructuring plan dubbed “Limestone,” FT reported Tuesday, citing people with direct knowledge of the matter. The move highlights the pervasive ageism in China’s tech sector, where younger workers are favored for their perceived willingness to work long hours and keep up with the latest techn … ⌘ Read more

Microsoft Launches Phi-3 Mini, a 3.8B-Parameter Model Rivaling GPT-3.5 Capabilities
Microsoft has launched Phi-3 Mini, a lightweight AI model with 3.8 billion parameters, as part of its plan to release three small models. Phi-3 Mini, trained on a smaller data set compared to large language models, is available on Azure, Hugging Face, and Ollama. Microsoft claims Phi-3 Mini performs as well as models … ⌘ Read more

Google Fires More Employees Over Protest of Cloud Contract With Israel
Google has fired another 20 workers for participating in protests against its $1.2 billion cloud computing contract with the Israeli government, according to an activist group representing the workers. From a report: In total, the company has now fired around 50 employees over sit-in protests held in Google offices last week that were … ⌘ Read more