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'Black side down,' Lego style - Lego has released another NASA-themed set; this time, a version of the US space agency's Boeing 747-based Shuttle Carrier Aircraft with a Space Shuttle perched on top.
Probe into how to implement social media ban finds privacy risks, developer overreach, infosec uncertainties - Australia’s trial of age assurance technology has found it’s up to the task of preventing children under 16 years of age from using social media, despite many problems.
Illegal products abound on Chinese site and its processes to stop ‘em are hopeless - The European Commission has found Chinese e-tail giant AliExpress in breach of its obligation to assess and mitigate risks related to the dissemination of illegal products as required under the Digital Services Act (DSA).
Are they using it to death then locking it in a drawer? Schemes needed as shipments of refurbed kit dips - Less than a third of European consumers trade in or sell their old phones, limiting the supply of secondhand devices that might otherwise stimulate a more environmentally friendly alternative to buying brand new.
For that laptop feel without the laptop - Logitech has embraced the sound of silence with its Signature Slim Wired K620 keyboard and M520 mouse combo.
Third time's a charm? - Apple has escaped a $300 million patent infringement damages penalty – for now – due to what a trio of judges said comes down to faulty jury instructions.
Preferred and secured creditors walk away with nothing - Brit-based ruggedized phone maker Bullitt Group's liquidation has finally wrapped up – and the firm was in such dire straits that none of its creditors received any recovered funds.
MAGA MVNO and the gold-plated telephone of destiny - The Trump family is getting into the wireless business - and what better way to do it than with a gold-colored Android smartphone that could someday be designed and manufactured in the USA?
But lose your code and it's gone for good - Windows 11 users in the European Economic Area will shortly receive a new Recall Export feature, allowing Recall snapshots to be shared with third-party apps and websites.
Zero-day potentially tied to around 100 suspected infections in 2025 and a spyware scandal on the continent - Apple has updated its iOS/iPadOS 18.3.1 documentation, confirming it introduced fixes for the zero-click vulnerability used to infect journalists with Paragon's Graphite spyware.
Abusive manager had to be told there's no such thing as an atomic laptop - By Friday morning, Reg readers’ batteries can sometimes be a little low, which is why we always use the day to offer a jolt of amusement in the form of On Call – the reader contributed column in which we celebrate the lows and lows of tech support.
Mattel-OpenAI deal paves the way for an AI beach-off - Toy giant Mattel has signed a deal with OpenAI to bring the tech industry's buzziest technology to the very youngest generation.
Only while parked - Apple is enabling video playback on its CarPlay automotive operating system and has integrated it into iOS 26, as long as you're parked.
DRIVE stack promises safer roads and smarter cars – eventually - Nvidia has officially rolled out its autonomous vehicle (AV) software, despite telling a UK car mag that fully self-driving vehicles are not likely before the next decade.
Army joins in push to break vendor grip on military maintenance - US Navy Secretary John Phelan has told the Senate the service needs the right to repair its own gear, and will rethink how it writes contracts to keep control of intellectual property and ensure sailors can fix hardware, especially in a fight.
Chocolate Factory fixes issue, pays only $5K - A researcher has exposed a flaw in Google's authentication systems, opening it to a brute-force attack that left users' mobile numbers up for grabs.
Elon Musk suggested this to Beijing years ago - China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has ordered extensive trials of intelligent aged care robots.
If gamers can have a slimline version of the OS, why not IT admins? - Microsoft just demonstrated it can put Windows 11 on a diet if it really wants to, with the announcement of PC gaming handhelds running a slimmed-down version of the operating system under the hood.
Big tech can't be bothered to fight crime. It can barely be bothered even to say so - A lot of our tech world is nightmarish, but sometimes this is literally true.
1.19MHz eight-bit CPU trounced modern GPUs – can you do better with your retro-tech? - The Atari 2600 gaming console came into the world in 1977 with an eight-bit processor that ran at 1.19MhZ, and just 128 bytes of RAM – but that’s apparently enough power to beat ChatGPT at chess.
Stale designs and market maturation aren't helping either, says Counterpoint Research - The Trump administration's chaotic tariff regime is likely to have a serious impact on the smartphone market worldwide, but the latest forecasts predict the disruption will be felt most keenly in the one economy Trump is trying to protect: The United States.
Trump's on again off again tariffs, economic uncertainty, no vital apps and higher price tags - PC makers were salivating at the prospect of AI notebooks driving up their margins yet it seems the price difference coupled with a lack of killer apps and the destabilizing influence of tariff talk means customer adoption is slower than expected.
Tech giants say blocking purloined devices via IMEI could open new fraud risks - UK legislators are questioning why Apple and Google have yet to implement measures to allow smartphones to be locked, reset, and prevented from accessing cloud services after they've been stolen, as requested by police.
Musk's 'Bitcoin-style encryption' claim has experts scratching their heads - Elon Musk's X social media platform is rolling out a new version of its direct messaging feature that the platform owner said had a "whole new architecture," but as with many a Muskian proclamation, there's reason to doubt what's been said.
Out-of-band is becoming the norm rather than the exception - Microsoft is patching another patch that dumped some PCs into recovery mode with an unhelpful error code.
No wonder those products always rated so highly - Australia’s Securities & Investments Commission has sued a product comparison website that it alleges only considered products from a related company.
29M customers, four radio suppliers, and one hell of a network headache - Network engineers can take solace from the completed merger of Three and Vodafone announced today, as the difficult technical work now starts to unify their separate networks over the next several years.
Liberation Day not freeing consumers or businesses of their hard earned disposable income - Trump's tariffs may have been ruled unlawful, but they are still in place and continue to affect the market, with the threat of price hikes on smartphones causing prospective buyers to hold off until the situation becomes less volatile.
Can't build a datacenter overnight, argues tech giant - Dell has confirmed an order backlog of $14.4 billion for AI optimized servers, yet it is tempering investors' expectations for future sales by talking about demand being lumpy and dependencies in the pipeline.
One of the new smaller monthly releases – and how to tweak it - Mozilla subsidiary MZLA has released the latest version of its messaging client, with some handy extras.
Against backdrop of EU rules on spread of misinfo plus UK probing role of online hate in far right riots - The US government says it'll refuse visas to foreign officials judged to have censored social media posts of American citizens - a move aimed at countries trying to stem the flow of online misinformation.
Law enforcement crackdowns are gathering pace but online marketplaces still teeming with valuable tokens - A VPN vendor says billions of stolen cookies currently on sale either on dark web or Telegram-based marketplaces remain active and exploitable.
Users leaving App Store to make a third party payment must be free of charge, says Euro Commish - The European Commission (EC) this week released the full text of its decision that found Apple in violation of its digital competition rules, known as the Digital Markets Act (DMA).
Hiked prices and thinks that will make buyers nervous - HP Inc. is close to ending production of North-America-bound products in China, after US tariffs kicked a hole in its quarterly profits.
Project shutdowns at Mozilla are not encouraging, though - Another month, another new version of Firefox, with several handy changes. The future is less certain, though.
Really strong USB ports make a difference too by reducing the need for motherboard replacements - Analysts rate Taiwan’s ASUS the world’s fifth most prolific PC-maker, but the company wants to climb the charts by targeting business buyers, according to Shawn Chang, Head of Go-To-Market for the outfit’s Commercial Business Unit.
No more features for the design darling - now it’s all about chatting with your tabs like they’re sentient - AI is rapidly reshaping how we use the web, or so The Browser Company founder Josh Miller argues. That belief helped drive his team's decision to stop building new features for its Arc browser and shift focus to an "AI browser" dubbed Dia.
Prediction: General-purpose AI could start getting worse - I use AI a lot, but not to write stories. I use AI for search. When it comes to search, AI, especially Perplexity, is simply better than Google.
Taiwan's tech expo dishes up the usual oddities - some less bonkers than they seem - Taiwan’s Computex conference sprawls across four exhibition halls in which almost 1,500 exhibitors jostle for attention.
But pauses tech-adjacent threat to slap all Euro-imports with 50 percent duties - US president Donald Trump has threatened a tariff that would apply only to Apple, and appears to have referred to the European Union’s treatment of American tech companies as part of a threat to slap the bloc with higher tariffs.
Chinese manufacturers are advertising how they dodge tariffs, and tech leaders know they’re in a new world - Every time I attend Taiwan's Computex exhibition I'm bewildered by the dozens of vendors selling unremarkable keyboards and mice.
Worries about uncertainty, even as AI pushes revenue and profit higher - Chinese hardware giant Lenovo thought it had prepared for a trade war, but its plan proved insufficient once the US started to rapidly change its tax policies in imported goods.
For once, the IT department was rewarded for finding the fix, and the perfect-if-unexpected fixer - Welcome to a fresh instalment of On-Call, The Register’s reader-contributed column in which you share your tales of tech support triumph, and we try to retell them in an amusing fashion.
Consumer affairs Minister is not happy with Uber for following local players with this scheme to encourage rapid pickups - India’s consumer affairs minister has criticized Uber for adding a feature that allows users to tip their driver before a trip as an incentive to take a job.
And other ways to get that Amiga feeling on a budget - The FOSS recreation of AmigaOS is making progress. A new edition runs entirely from a USB key, so you can temporarily turn your PC into an Amiga – without any tricky installation process.
Chocolate Factory comes for Meta's Ray-Bans with Warby Parker pact - Google and eyeglass maker Warby Parker have partnered to create a more stylish successor to Google Glass, which cofounder Sergey Brin quipped will actually be polished before launch this time.
Bribed support staff identified, fired - Coinbase says the data of nearly 70,000 customers was handed over by overseas support staff who were bribed by criminals to give up the goods.
I'm altering the deal. Pray I don't alter it any further - The union representing American actors has complained about Llama Production, which is owned by Epic Games, over the use of generative AI in a new character for Fortnite.
There’s something wrong with keyboard design, but we can’t put our finger on it - Linus Torvalds is the global hero most of the world doesn't even know exists. There are no big movies about him, no best-selling biographies, no ardent Torvaldian cultists with home altars and gilded icons. At least, we hope not.
Fine-print is vague and broad, could easily be abused to blunt protected speech - President Donald Trump officially signed Monday the TAKE IT DOWN Act, a bill to criminalize revenge porn - both real and AI-generated. But internet rights groups have repeatedly warned the law is overly broad and vague, and could be used to order the takedown of protected speech.
It matters for everyone, because we'll all be disabled one day - Accessibility matters to everyone. If you think it doesn't: it will. Apple builds in some pretty good tools, and they're getting better. Here's why it's important.
Crooks must be licking their lips at the possibilities - Uncle Sam's consumer watchdog has scrapped plans to implement Biden-era rules that would've treated certain data brokers as credit bureaus, forcing them to follow stricter laws when flogging Americans' sensitive data.
Mark Z does not like this - The European Union has fined Facebook parent Meta €797.72 million ($843 million) for antitrust violations connected to its online classified service Facebook Marketplace.
Despite 49% surge in shipments, buyers seem unconvinced - Warehouses in the IT channel are stocking up with AI-capable PCs - industry watcher Canalys claims these made up 20 percent of all shipments during Q3 2024, amounting to some 13.3 million units worldwide.
Until compatibility issues are properly addressed, it'll never stand up to x86 - Qualcomm has set its sights on Arm-based Windows laptops, which, in theory, offer notable advantages. The company's Arm-powered Snapdragon processors promise exceptional battery life that puts x86 machines to shame, fanless designs, and integrated 5G connectivity that leave Intel and AMD looking dated. By betting on a mobile and connected world, Qualcomm aims to position Arm-based Windows laptops as the future.
Consumer champion Which? not amused by fruit-based giant's alleged preference for its own cloud storage - UK consumer group Which? has filed a £3 billion action against Apple over alleged competition law breaches related to its iCloud service.
Government both excited and cautious about benefits of Muskband - Starlink is in the process of procuring clearances for operation in India according to the nation's telecom minister, Jyotiraditya Scindia.
iFixit teardown finds a removable SSD. Time to party like its 2010? - The iFixit team has pulled apart Apple's new Mac Mini, revealing replaceable storage and a slightly more modular design - concessions to repairability that warrant an impressive provisional score.
Ever try to change your account's registered country? It's nigh impossible - The European Union has demanded more platform changes from Apple – this time accusing it of violating anti-geoblocking rules in several of its media services.
Jack Teixeira, 22, talked of 'culling the weak minded' – hmm! - A former Air National Guard member who stole classified American military secrets, and showed them to his gaming buddies on Discord, has been sentenced to 15 years in prison.
No mention of how to get the tools to bypass software locks means owner still legally beholden to OEMs - Digital software locks have just become flimsier in Canada with the passage of a pair of laws allowing for their bypass for repair and interoperability purposes.
Europe boss also speaks of 'nervousness' in any extension to the use of the controversial, ageing system - Fujitsu's Europe boss has told a public inquiry into the Post Office scandal — one of the widest miscarriages of justice in UK history — that the company does not trust the UK public body in its use of Horizon system data to support future police prosecutions.
Chinese firm poised for (short) commercial flights by 2025 - China's urban air mobility biz, EHang, has announced its EH216-S pilotless electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft has completed debut passenger flights in Thailand.
Tech companies, not users, to be punished for violations of social media time-out - The Australian government has confirmed it will create legislation that bans access to social media for people under the age of 16.
Govt order destroys 'hundreds of well-paying local jobs', eh - Canada has ordered the dissolution of TikTok's Canadian business – without banning the app itself – citing national security risks associated with ByteDance's operations in the country.
Privacy lawsuit blows this way alleging disclosure of names, email addresses, geo info, video titles without permission - IBM has been sued again for allegedly allowing third-party ad partners to collect personal data without consent via videos on its Weather Channel website.
US firm made OEMs, glass processors sign exclusivity deals, tattle on competitors, claims Euro Commish - Corning's Gorilla Glass is found in countless tech products, from smartphones and wearables to automobile windshields, and the European Commission has an inkling its success is due in part to the US-based business cutting anticompetitive deals.
Report shines light on unexpected ways your devices sell you out - UK consumer champion Which? wants you to know that your air fryer might be spying on you and sharing your data with third parties for marketing purposes.
Violation of labor rights? By the iTitan? Surely not! - The hot water in which the National Labor Relations Board has been boiling Apple is getting deeper, as the US workers' rights body has issued yet another unfair labor practice complaint alleging the constructive termination of developer and labor activist Cher Scarlett in 2021.
Automaker bets big on startup while other promising eVTOL companies scrape around for funding - Joby Aviation – backed by Japanese automotive giant Toyota – conducted Japan's first electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft (eVTOL) flight test over the weekend, edging closer to the reality of flying taxis.
Plus: China Unicom auctions off old cables; Japan's My Number Card also soon a driver's license; and Hong Kong chief executive warns US investment ban will backfire - Singapore's Land Transport Authority (LTA) estimated last week that by tracking all vehicles with GPS it will be able to increase road capacity by 20,000 over the next few years.
60% tariffs on all Chinese goods are going to slam the IT sector - Tariffs have become a major issue in the current US election, with former president Donald Trump claiming his plans to put a 10-20 percent tax on imports, rising to 60 percent with China, would fill government coffers for tax cuts and make American manufacturing great again. His rival Kamala Harris called the plans a ‘sales tax on the American people.'
How 'Gary' defeated Bowser broke into the interactive alarm clock - A hacker who uses the handle GaryOderNichts has found a way to break into Nintendo's recently launched Alarmo clock, and run code on the device.
India saw an all-time revenue record and is poised for four more physical stores - Apple released its fourth quarter results for FY 2024 on Thursday, revealing that its sales in China were starting to slide and hinting at market saturation in the face of competition from domestic players like Huawei and Xiaomi.
Busy week for Cupertino sees shrunken Mac minis, updated lappies, and new SoCs - With the arrival of its M4 silicon on the Mac this week, Apple wants the world to know that the silicon powering AI PCs is no match for its chips.
The decentralized social network hints at sustainability with talk of subscriptions - Bluesky says it has hauled in more than 13 million users, up from about three million when it opened to the public in February 2024.
The silicon no longer limited to Cupertino's priciest iPads - In a surprise announcement on Monday, Apple unveiled a rainbow of new iMacs powered by its M4 processor with 16 GB of memory as standard, a 12 MP webcam, and no shortage of AI gimmicks… er… features.
HarmonyOS NEXT sounds dissonant until you get the theme - Launching a new mobile OS is what professional historians of technology refer to as a dumb move. It is so shatteringly stupid that even Microsoft stopped bothering after three or four goes – did we all just imagine the Kin?
It turns out morning light beats evening rays for health benefits - The streets of Soho aren't alive with disco or bellbottoms anymore, so maybe it's time to ditch another '70s icon we should have outgrown by now, says the British Sleep Society (BSS).
If only all Android apps were so effortlessly stylish - As large and cheap LCD displays become ever more common, techies on the move can see there is no rest for the IoT signage silage – but this does not seem to be the case if your name is Mr Biz Daemon.
TrendForce reports significant capacity gains as Beijing targets reduced reliance on imported semiconductors - While most industry attention is focused on cutting-edge silicon, China continues to ramp up production of so-called mature nodes, leading to overall capacity increasing by 6 percent in 2025, according to TrendForce.
Lightweight 'FMV Zero' is only sold online in Japan, dammit - Fujitsu Japan's client computing operation claims to have seized the title of world's lightest laptop, after launching the 634-gram "FMV Zero."
Yes, the law that needs to be harmonized with Europe for tech businesses' data to flow freely - The UK government has begun to introduce its latest update to data protection laws it claims will boost economic growth and public sector efficiency. The government said it expects it will keep the UK in line with the EU's GDPR.
Third quarter results recharge Tesla's stock price - Tesla stock is on the up after America's most valuable automaker reported its third quarter results – including the news that the beleaguered Cybertruck "achieved a positive gross margin for the first time."
Dad, why does this button say ABC? It's a short term trend, says analyst - Sales of "dumb" phones are on the rise in the UK, according to telco Virgin Media O2 (VMO2), with parents choosing them instead of smartphones to try and spare their kids from the perils of social media and instant messaging.
Emergency services had to move a boulder to get her out - If you're out and about in nature and drop your phone down a three-meter crevice between some boulders, maybe don't try to retrieve it.
New flagship SoC drops Arm and grows its own legs with Oryon - During day one of Qualcomm's Snapdragon Summit in Maui, Hawaii, it unveiled its latest flagship SoC, dubbed the Snapdragon 8 Elite. This marks a pivotal swing into harnessing the technical prowess of its acquired Nuvia team.
C'mon, do you really think ol' Elon’s handing out all that cash, day after day? - Elon Musk's plan to give $1 million each day to a random registered "swing state" voter who has signed his election petition could merit a look for election law violations, Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro said over the weekend.
Broader December release promises Ubuntu support and enhanced features - Prominent RISC-V protagonist SiFive has announced early access to its anticipated development board, built around the firm's P550 core design, with a broader release scheduled for December.
Another raft of reasons to ponder your social media presence - Elon Musk's social media mouthpiece X (formerly known as Twitter) has updated its Terms of Service and Privacy Policy to direct disputes to a federal court in Texas and allow third parties to train AIs on user posts.
Update for Skyline phone brings selective distraction blocking - A couple of months after launch, an OS update has delivered one of the Nokia HMD Skyline's headline features.
CLEAR group calls for VAT to be dropped on spare parts, repairs, labor - A newly formed group of UK electronics companies is advocating for the removal of VAT on electronic spare parts, repairs, and labor in the government's upcoming autumn budget, claiming this would encourage consumers to get kit repaired instead of replacing it.
China will lead the way with North America trailing - Tech analysts forecast that the number of electric vehicles (EVs) in use will grow by 33 percent in 2025, and 73 percent will be battery-powered (BEVs).
Florida man gets his hands on 'the best ever' - With less than a month to go before American voters head to the polls to choose their next president, the Trump campaign has been investing in secure tech to make sure it doesn't get compromised again.
Will it also plug into some common sense? - UK government has kicked off a consultation on whether the country should have a common standard for charging electrical devices, and if this needs to be the same as the USB-C connector the EU adopted.
How many Reg hacks does it take to change a light fitting...? - Smart homes aren't smart. Simultaneously sinister and stupid, maybe, but not smart. We have been sold a pup, a nice shiny pup hyped as both miraculous and inevitable. It is neither. From the simplest appliance to the most sophisticated, they steal what they want and deny what we need.
WCGW? Plus: Automous Robovan also makes surprise appearance at Cybercab's coming out party - Complete with Back to The Future style folding doors, Tesla is showing off what might be its Robotaxi at last, along with an autonomous minibus and the Optimus robot.
Analysts can't agree whether market is marginally up or down - The PC market is not showing many signs of a rebound, despite the hype around AI PCs, with market watchers split over whether unit shipments are up or down slightly.
Humans dumped by famously fusty tennis tournament - The All England Lawn Tennis Club, organizer of the famed Wimbledon tennis tournament, will make line-ball calls with machines instead of human in 2025.
AI is showing the way to new possibilities after a tricky first year - A year after winning the rights to build machines based on Intel's Next Unit of Compute (NUC) mini-PC spec, Taiwan's Asus claims it has stabilized the product line and the team that makes it – and is poised to innovate.
Improved security features teased in May now appearing around the world - Google has apparently started a global rollout of three features in Android designed to make life a lot harder for thieves to profit from purloined phones.
Chocolate Factory vows to appeal - A US court has ordered Google to refrain from a wide variety of business practices the web giant uses to bolster its Play Store, as a consequence of its December 2023 antitrust defeat against Epic Games.
Support expiry clock ticks for Windows 10 – PC makers won't be happy with latest stats - Windows 11 migration projects, long hoped for by Microsoft and PC chums, are picking up. But a report from asset management biz Lansweeper indicates the rush is on with "millions" of devices still running Windows 10.
Despite amazing battery life and lovely speed, this one has flaws that may annoy - Across the 30 years I've used laptop PCs, they've always made me anxious about battery life. Dell's XPS 13 9345 Copilot+ PC powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon Elite X is the first Windows PC to relieve me of that worry and let me confidently leave my desk for a full working day without carrying any charging apparatus whatsoever – but it still has unwelcome baggage.
Why yes, I will help you again – for a price - The exchange of labor for currency can be a grim business, which is why The Register ends each working week with a new installment of On Call – the reader contributed column in which you tell cathartic tales of Working For The Man.
Tractor maker has only turned over shoddy tools, half-baked info, may be breaking the law, says senator - US Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) has sent a letter to John May, CEO of agricultural equipment maker Deere & Company, questioning whether John Deere is living up to the promises it made to support the right to repair.
Because that's the group most likely to share misinformation online - Since Elon Musk bought Twitter nearly two years ago – a $44 billion acquisition he tried to pull out of – the mogul has driven a narrative that moderation of the microblogging website disproportionately targeted conservatives, libertarians, and Trump supporters.
What would you like the power to do? Not having an heart attack would be nice - Some US customers using the Bank of America app to keep an eye on their accounts got a shock Wednesday morning when their checking and savings accounts were unexpectedly empty or out of date.
It's easy being Elon - Tesla has managed to persuade a California judge to throw out a lawsuit that claimed the automaker misled shareholders about its Full Self-driving (FSD) system's true capabilities.
Five years of mixed reality – now just mixed feelings - Microsoft has axed its HoloLens 2 mixed reality headset and there won't be a hardware replacement, The Register can confirm.
Tata was about to double the workforce at the plant - Authorities are investigating a fire that broke out last weekend at a Tata Electronics facility that produces iPhone components in India. Production at the plant has been halted indefinitely.
A very expensive 2 days in September for the blocked social media platform - X's accidental reappearance in Brazil will cost the company 10 million Brazilian reais, or about $1.83 million, in the latest ruling handed down by the country's Federal Supreme Court.
From allegations of lying about capabilities to fake reviews. Plus: Biden AI robocaller finally fined $6M - The FTC has made good on its promise to crack down on suspected deceptive AI claims, announcing legal action against five outfits accused of lying about their software's capabilities or using it to break the law.
Better or worse than a surprise U2 album? - Apple's on-device AI model, dubbed Apple Intelligence, will require 4 GB of device storage space, and more at a later date. That's about the size of an HD movie, for now.
Turn on home aircon and maybe peer inside the fridge or oven – all from behind the wheel - Samsung and fellow South Korean giants Kia and Hyundai have struck up an IoT alliance that will see cars drive home appliances, and smartphones control some operations inside cars.
'High time this happened' says Musk - Elon Musk has confirmed a change to X that will allow blocked users to view public posts.
The little computer-that-could benefits as supply chain eases - Raspberry Pi has reported a jump in revenue and profit for the first half of 2024, sending the company's shares soaring despite marginally lower volumes than expected.
Maybe a spell in a French cell changed Durov's mind - In a volte-face, Telegram CEO Pavel Durov announced that the made-in-Russia messaging platform will become a lot less cozy for criminals.
A low bar, for sure, but a move in the right direction - Apple's iPhone 16 has arrived, and the teardown crew at iFixit has wasted no time in pulling apart the latest device and found its repairability... rather good, relatively speaking.
Microsoft should look to Apple for lessons in flogging dead horses - In the early 2010s, Intel's PR did the tech press rounds with a hot story. We're so far ahead in chip fab, they said, that nobody will ever catch up. The hacks concluded two things from this: Intel was losing ground fast enough to be scared, and it was right on both counts. How did that pan out again?
Brazilian model flummoxes calc fans - For most of us, a calculator might have been superseded by Excel or an app on a phone, yet there remains a die-hard contingent with a passion for the push-button marvels. So the shocking discovery of an apparently rogue HP-12C has sent tremors through the calculator aficionado world.
Is this from the same gossips who were wrong about Altera and Mobileye or the DoJ subpoenaing Nvidia? - Qualcomm may be after more than Intel's PC design business as it has supposedly approached the x86 giant about a possible takeover.
Bloc's USB-C rules forecast to disrupt supply, barring 8 million imported phones from reaching Europe's ports - The impending Radio Equipment Directive in the EU is forecast to render eight million used smartphones, or two in five units, no longer available for supply and – at least in the trading bloc – effectively obsolete.
Says Lina Khan in latest push to rein in Meta, Google, Amazon and pals - Buried beneath the endless feeds and attention-grabbing videos of the modern internet is a network of data harvesting and sale that's perhaps far more vast than most people realize, and it desperately needs regulation.
Fail to comply may cost up to 10% of annual revenue - The European Commission intends to force Apple to open its walled garden.
Opt out if you don't like it – EU and a few others, including now the UK, excepted - LinkedIn started harvesting user-generated content to train its AI without asking for permission, angering netizens.
Qualcomm, on the other hand, wasn’t so lucky - Google has some thank-you cards to send, as the European Union's General Court (GC) has nullified a €1.49 billion ($1.66 billion) fine levied against the tech giant for anti-competitive advertising behavior.
Add 'ransomware' to the list of certainties in life? - In an intriguing move, notorious ransomware gang LockBit claims once again to have compromised eFile.com, which offers online services for electronically filing tax returns with the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
Big Blue’s Prodigy from the 1980s comes back to haunt FarmVille giant - IBM's patent farm has yielded another bumper crop, with a Delaware jury awarding Big Blue $45 million in damages from mobile games maker Zynga.
Removing de minimis exemption could stymie Beijing’s plans to grow its cyber-bazaar abroad - The Biden administration announced on Friday it was cracking down on a tax loophole that has enabled Chinese web souks like Shein and Temu to thrive.
I wanna know 🎵 What you're feeling 🎵 Tell me what's on your mind - Meta is going to resume scraping the personal public feeds of British Facebook and Instagram users for training AI after reaching an agreement with the UK's Information Commissioner's Office (ICO).
You gotta admit, that speaks volumes for Cupertino - America's drug watchdog this week gave Apple permission to market its AirPods Pro 2 as over-the-counter hearing aids, disrupting an industry where traditional devices have often cost thousands of dollars.
No love for months-long wait to fix this, either - Security researchers have revealed a litany of failures in the Feeld dating app that could be abused to access all manner of private user data, including the most sensitive images not intended to be kept or shared.
Oh and about those AI computers... analysts reckon there are still no killer apps or convincing use cases - Admins had better dust off their Windows migration skills if Dell and HP are right that a refresh wave of "aging" commercial PC estates is picking up pace – even though the process is slower to happen than either company seems to have expected.
Dedicated support to be assembled to prevent cyberattacks, IT outages, and bad weather from affecting availability - From today, the UK is designating datacenters as critical national infrastructure (CNI). As a result, the sector is expected to get special government support designed to prevent negative economic impacts of IT outages like CrowdStrike's, cyberattacks, and extreme weather events.
Academically interesting technique for poking holes in paywalled tech specs - An anti-piracy system to protect online video streams from unauthorized copying is flawed – and can be broken to allow streamed media from Amazon, Netflix, and others to be saved, replayed, and spread at will, we're told.
Augmented reality meets warped reality - A defense ministry official from Belarus has claimed augmented reality game Pokémon GO was a tool of Western intelligence agencies.
Union alleges work conditions are like solitary confinement and violence is common at Tamil Nadu plant - Workers at a Samsung Electronics plant in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu have been on strike since Monday, disrupting production as they fight for wage hikes, better hours, and an end to a no-union policy.
Foxcon and Sharp imagine a sofa and television in a connected electric van - Japanese electronics giant Sharp and its majority stakeholder, Foxconn, have unveiled an electric vehicle that features, among other mod cons, an "extended living room."
Correction, no one wanted – well, except perhaps these patent filers at Ford - Someday soon, if Ford has its way, drivers and passengers may be bombarded with infotainment ads tailored to their personal and vehicle data.
Final judgment handed down by Court of Justice of the European Union - Following an eight-year legal tussle, Europe's highest court has ruled in a "final judgment" that Apple benefited from massive tax breaks after Ireland contravened EU state aid rules.
Plus: 550MW more DCs for India; Australia poised to use decryption powers; Indonesia creates cyber warfare unit - Huawei has revealed an image of the Mate XT, the world's first tri-folding smartphone – and that was apparently enough to spark over a million orders for the device.
Robotaxis, low pay may be end of the road for app cabbies in San Francisco - The Uber driver who picked me up the other day doesn't think the ride-sharing app has much of a future in San Francisco.
Some brick devices they'd rather not support, kill apps that drive functions, or add post-sale subscriptions - Consumer and digital rights activists are calling on the US Federal Trade Commission to stop device-makers using software to reduce product functionality, bricking unloved kit, or adding surprise fees post-purchase.
Provisional findings echo worries in the US and EC about the search giant's dominance - The UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has administered a provisional rap over Google's knuckles for alleged abuse of its dominant position in the advertising technology marketplace.
Sorry, no, you can’t just digitize, share copyrighted books without permission - The US Second Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday affirmed a lower court ruling that the Internet Archive's digitization and electronic distribution of copyrighted print books violates American law.
Microsoft's Copilot+ machines suck at one of computing's oldest use cases - A significant cadre of computer users is waking up to the fact that Microsoft's first volley of Copilot+ machines – notebooks capable of local AI processing – simply aren't very good at a bog-standard use case.
And you may ask yourself, 'How do I work this?' And you may ask yourself, 'Where is that large computer?' - This is the third part of The Register FOSS desk's roundup of some of the more memorable missteps and could-have-beens from the beginnings of the microcomputer industry until today.
The signal may not rot your mind, we can't say the same for the content - Time to take off the tin foil hat: A review of 28 years of research into the health effects of radio wave exposure from cellphones has found no evidence to link the handhelds to brain cancer, or negative effects on health more generally.
Shipments held up following warehouse migration tech glitches, can't cancel orders either - Google's Pixel 9 phone appears to be made of pure unobtainium if the experience of some O2* customers is anything to go by.
Cost of the hardware as well as range and lack of charging infrastructure to blame - Registrations of battery electric vehicles (BEV) continue to fall in the European continent, as sales growth slows in the US and British manufacturing of the wheeled machines declines sharply.
Time to make e-commerce great again instead? - Mikhail Parakhin, the former Windows boss who pledged to "make Start Menu great again" before departing Microsoft shortly after, has popped up as CTO of e-commerce outfit Shopify.
As the hardware got more capable, the messes got more expensive - Welcome back to The Reg FOSS desk's roundup of the slip-ups and missteps from the dawn of the microcomputer industry onward – at least those that are most memorable to us.
Major funding backs printer giant's microfluidics work as market waits to see if regular printing revs recover - HP Inc is in line for $50 million from the US CHIPS Act fund for a microfluidics facility it operates to develop technology for applications such as cell research and pharmaceutical development.
Business left Europe last year, but remains ticking away - Fujitsu this week announced 16 new business notebooks, desktops, tablets, and workstations.
Forget wrist acrobatics, we need smarter wake word detection and on-device voice recognition - Apple is gearing up for its annual fall event, where new iPhone and Apple Watch models traditionally make their debut. This year marks a significant milestone: It's been 10 years since the launch of the original Apple Watch. To commemorate this anniversary, the tech giant is expected to unveil a special edition, unofficially named the Apple Watch X.
A personal collection of the memorable missteps and fumbles - You'll find below an informal roundup of the slip-ups and missteps that stick in the mind of The Reg FOSS desk, from the dawn of the microcomputer industry onwards. We are certain that we've missed plenty – let us know your favorites.
Phew! Consumer-grade tracking devices are good for more than finding your keys and stalking - Theft of packages is an ongoing problem, so one California woman tried a high tech solution to the problem – and her use of Apple’s consumer-grade AirTags tracking devices led to two arrests.
A guided tour of vintage hardware set to be scattered to the winds - The Living Computers museum's tech collection is set for auction. Retired Microsoft engineer Dave Plummer took a last look and mused on the theme of donor's remorse.
Twitchy roll resolved, landing gear works on one-third size demonstrator - Aircraft biz Boom Supersonic completed the second test flight of its XB-1 demonstrator vehicle on Monday, during which the landing gear was retracted and extended for the first time and its new roll damper was tested.
'The government pressure was wrong, and I regret that we were not more outspoken about it,' says Facebook founder - Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is giving ammunition to conspiracy theorists with a letter to the House Judiciary Committee in which he claims the Biden administration pressured his company on multiple occasions to censor posts related to COVID-19.
The ride-sharing provider insists it broke no rules during the three-year legal gap - Privacy authorities in the Netherlands have imposed a €290 million ($324 million) fine on ride-share giant Uber for sending driver data to servers in the United States - "a serious violation" of the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
Buying PCs off the gray market can (literally) blow up in your face - Welcome, gentle reader, to another Monday morning. We here at The Reg hope your working week is starting well – or at least better than it went for the protagonist of this week's instalment of Who, Me?
Rumors swirl that lack of content moderation has angered authorities - The founder and CEO of made-in-Russia messaging app Telegram, Pavel Durov, was arrested in France on Saturday – and subjected to further detention the next day – apparently over his company's alleged failure to follow content moderation laws and assist with several criminal investigations.
Those using Windows 11, version 24H2, should see better speed - AMD has responded to community concerns about underwhelming gaming performance of its Ryzen 9000 Series desktop processors by attributing disappointing results recorded by independent testers to the vagaries of their system and software setups.
DC appeals court reverses dismissal, finding enough evidence of anticompetitive behavior to proceed - The District of Columbia Court of Appeals on Thursday found there was sufficient evidence of anticompetitive behavior by Amazon to allow Washington DC's antitrust case against the e-commerce giant to move forward.
More of an Easter egg than a vuln, but a fun one to mess around with - Typing a special four-character string will crash your iPhone thanks to a newly discovered, albeit benign, bug in iOS and iPadOS.
Nokia custodian makes efforts to help you fight fondleslab fixation - HMD is the company that made the post-Microsoft Nokia Android devices. Now it's going by its own name – and offering greater repairability.
Pretending you're a server won't stop the hardware police - Microsoft has finally patched a workaround exploited by users seeking an upgrade path for Windows 11 that dodged the company's hardware requirements.
Nobody really needs more than that, right? - Almost a year after Raspberry Pi 5 debuted, a cheaper 2 GB version has appeared for users that want to save a little cash or for whom 4 or 8 GB was just slightly excessive.
Good for beginners, but a few missing features will annoy - Purveyor of optics Beaverlab has unveiled its an inexpensive telescope for wannabe star-gazers: the Finder TW2.
But the cost of battling Apple and Google? A hefty $1B lost in revenue - Epic Games, booted from Apple's walled garden four years ago for crimes against App Store policy, has built its own digital store for customers in Europe.
Remember the 'go hardcore or go home' email? Turns out: not super compatible with Irish employment law - Twitter has been ordered to pay €550,000 ($607,000) compensation for unfair dismissal to a former senior executive in Ireland, said to be a record amount awarded in the country over such a case.
The team knows you want one, but in the meantime why not make one yourself? - Raspberry Pi enthusiasts unable to wait for the shelves to fill up with Pi-500 stock are starting to get creative.
Is it an ad? Or serious infosec advice? - In its ongoing effort to boost the usage of its Edge browser, Microsoft is marketing the software to users of its Defender security suite with an unusual prompt – and is drawing criticism for blurring a line between advising and advertising.
And four more phones. Woo. Yay. - Today, Google said it will add more Gemini AI features to Android smartphones – though what's said to be best of that functionality will be exclusive to its new Pixel 9 line of handhelds.
You don't get to be the biggest business in the world by being nice - Patreon today said Apple will soon take a 30 percent cut of new subscriptions bought via its iOS app.
Seeks $23 million in damages over Musk's alleged reluctance to pay his bills - Elon Musk's Twitter X is being sued by its former chairman for damages he alleges run to more than $23 million over unpaid stock options.
A career and life so classically Silicon Valley - Susan Wojcicki, the architect of YouTube's spectacular rise and one of Silicon Valley's most influential figures, has passed away at age 56 after a two-year battle with cancer.
Is that a lot? Depends on the context. GHz, no. Voltage, yes - Intel has divulged more details on its Raptor Lake family of 13th and 14th Gen Core processor failures and the 0x129 microcode that's supposed to prevent further damage from occurring.
Amid reports that plenty of PC production will shift elsewhere, supply chain boss emphasizes agility - HP Inc loves China and wants to keep making and designing products there, but also loves the idea of diversifying its operations to other countries in case geopolitics becomes a problem.
Beefier Arms next to RV rival CPUs, offering a glimpse of the future - It's exciting news for RISC-V fans: Raspberry Pi is adding support for the open ISA with the launch of the Pico 2 and the company's new RP2350 microcontroller.
No pricing disclosed but plan allows users to order hands-off flights without operating any units - Nokia has hooked up with telco Swisscom Broadcast on a "Drones-as-a-Service" network across Switzerland, aimed at the emergency services and other applications where aerial observation is required.
Just snapping the webcam shutter closed won't keep a user safe online - New research shows that while many Brits will snap shut a laptop camera in the name of privacy, a worrying amount will just as happily shovel all manner of personal information into an online game in order to get a result they can share with their friends.
There's gold in them thar boards - The UK's Royal Mint has cut the ribbon on its Precious Metals Recovery factory, which extracts material from old Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs).
Brand-new Ryzen 9000 processors are about 10% cheaper than their Ryzen 7000 counterparts - AMD's next generation of desktop CPUs launch from tomorrow, and they'll feature lower prices than the last series.
Chamber of Progress pens open letter pressing billionaire to behave better amid UK riots - Echoing objections to social-media fueled violence from the government of the United Kingdom and others, the Chamber of Progress, a tech business advocacy group, is urging billionaire Elon Musk to take his leadership role at X more seriously or resign if he cannot do so.
Across China and the US, more than 3.5 million cars have been recalled - Tesla has issued a recall in China for four of its electric vehicle models, impacting more than 1.6 million cars.
CEO claims 'illegal boycott' was attack on Musk's version of free speech - Twitter today sued the World Federation of Advertisers, whose members are said to control about 90 percent of global marketing spend, for cutting back their ads on the social network – or in most cases pulling them entirely.
And you're replacing Chromecast with TV Streamer? Great! That's a logical step for the evolving landscape of ... - Google's Gemini AI is making its way to Nest cameras and Google Assistant, with the web goliath claiming the upgrade will make its smart devices smarter.
Hybrids snap at heels of battery-only vehicles in UK, but petrol is still king... for now - The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) has published UK data showing that while sales of new electric vehicles are on the rise, private buyers are staying away.
A de-Googled Android phone with extra security – and a subscription - Punkt adds a fondleslab to its lineup of minimalist tech kit, with a very unusual build of Android – and a hefty pricetag.
It’s starting to sink in for Chipzilla that it’s losing some credibility - Owners of Intel's 13th and 14th Gen Core desktop processors are set to get an extra two years of warranty coverage.
Remember that promise to be nice? You broke it, say prosecutors - The US government is suing TikTok, claiming the mega-popular app broke the law by playing fast and loose with millions of kids' data and privacy.
iPhone cash is a little off, but AI might just turn that around - Apple has posted its best-ever revenue for the June quarter, with help from first-time buyers of Macs and iPads.
Judges wonder out loud: If Congress wanted this, it would have passed a law, no? - The fate of net neutrality in the US still hangs in the balance, with a decision now unlikely before the November presidential election.
Lobbyists would love for rumors of a monopoly probe into GPU goliath to become reality - As the US Department of Justice continues mulling an antitrust probe into Nvidia, numerous advocacy groups are urging the Feds on.
No timeline yet, but drivers beware: Plans include collaboration on autonomous-capable vehicles - Uber and BYD have struck a deal to bring 100,000 BYD electric vehicles onto the Uber platform, starting with Europe and Latin America.
Chip outfit boosted by Chinese market, but goals for smartphones, PCs are ambitious - Qualcomm is confident its bet on AI in phones and Arm PCs will pay off, buoyed by more than 50 percent growth in revenue from Chinese handset makers and a promise of $700 Copilot+ PCs coming next year.
28-year-old mowed down in US state where cars ordinarily aren't allowed to operate autonomously - Washington State Patrol investigators have found that the Tesla involved in the death of a motorcyclist on Friday, April 19, 2024 was operating in Full Self-Driving (FSD) mode.
Strikes? What strikes? - Samsung Electronics is riding the AI wave with an increase in sales and a huge jump in operating profit thanks to a recovery in the memory market, and the firm expects demand from server AI to stay strong for the rest of the year.
E-super-souk isn't having any of it - Amazon has been ordered by the US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) to take responsibility for recalling faulty and dangerous products sold by third-party merchants.
Shut the Front Door! - If you've had or are having problems using websites and apps today, it might well be due to the Microsoft Azure outage.
Everything's bigger in Texas – even the settlement deals - Meta will pay a record $1.4 billion to settle a lawsuit with Texas, which accused the Facebook giant of breaking privacy laws by performing facial recognition on people's photos without their consent.
Latest silicon aims to bring Gigabit connectivity to sub-$100 handsets - Qualcomm has been pushing high-end smartphone platforms recently, but its latest release targets the budget segment, aiming to deliver Gigabit 5G connectivity to sub-$100 handsets.
Funny what threatening to walk off the job and shutter a retail store can do - Apple is on the verge of entering its first-ever agreement with a stateside retail employee union, caving to demands from store workers who threatened to walk off the job in May.
Khaan! Khaaaaaan! - Two US senators have urged the FTC to probe and potentially prosecute three automakers that allegedly unlawfully sold motorists' personal data for pennies.
Do we really want to bother SCOTUS with this, friends? Surely they're way too busy right now to take a look - US border agents must obtain a warrant, in New York at least, to search anyone's phone and other electronic device when traveling in or out of the country, another federal judge has ruled.
A headset for workers who want to stride around the room bellowing - Logitech has released a lightweight headset aimed squarely at business users. While there are Bluetooth and connectivity options aplenty, the quality of the materials matches the headset's low price.
Not even Oracle could stop it, claims DoJ - The US Department of Justice has alleged that TikTok shipped personal information to China and allowed profiling of the short video app's users based on their attitudes to some ticklish topics.
Previous outlawing attempt flew off, will this one stick the landing? - US senators have been asked again to consider banning the use of drones made by Chinese manufacturer DJI in American airspace after a previous attempt to outlaw the machines was dropped.
Chinese brands ascendant in the country’s phone market, but Apple’s exile might only be temporary - For the first time in a while, the top five smartphone vendors in China are all native, with Apple's position falling to sixth place.
The wild world of wrecking our tech - Have you ever bitten your phone, or thrown it in anger? How about broken it in a collision with a moose? These are just some of the ways in which people have damaged their digital devices, according to a survey.
There's a difference between a warranty and insurance. In this story the latter could fight back - Friday is the day the working week goes to die for most people – unless, like many a Reg reader, they're on call to provide tech support at all hours. Which is why we use this day to celebrate those hardy souls with a fresh instalment of On Call – the reader-contributed column that celebrates survival in the face of stupidity, mendacity, and substandard manners.
Launching in Beta is so 2014. We're in the prototype limited sign-up era now - After months of speculation, shy and retiring OpenAI has showed the world a glimpse of its very own web search engine powered by AI.
Reports hint they'll be here by Christmas - Huawei has reportedly developed a tri-fold smartphone that can be formed into a Z-shape, and will mass produce the machine before the end of 2024.
Oh, actual QA? In 2024? In this economy? - AMD has delayed the launch of its Ryzen 9000 desktop processors after discovering that production units initially shipped to channel partners weren't up to snuff.
Yes, you can be fingerprinted and tracked via Privacy Sandbox – tho the risk isn't as high as feared - Apple last week celebrated a slew of privacy changes coming to its Safari browser and took the time to bash rival Google for its Topics system that serves online ads based on your Chrome history.
What a Trump-appointed judge taketh away, a Biden judge giveth - The Federal Trade Commission's ban on noncompete agreements has been upheld after a second legal challenge, with a Philadelphia judge deciding that the FTC was well within its legal authority to prohibit such contract clauses.
Remembering when laptops could be fun and fixable - It is 25 years since Apple's Clamshell iBook G3 arrived, replete with iMac styling and an innovation – optional Wi-Fi connectivity via Apple's AirPort.
Put those pesky crashes in the past with a fun microcode upgrade! - Intel has promised to deliver a fix for some of its recent desktop processors suffering "stability issues."
Wagering boomed – and so did the quantity of money heading offshore - Indonesia has an online gambling problem. Despite having blocked access to wagering content over 2.5 million times last year, the nation’s Ministry of Communications and Information (KomInfo), believes it can only break the habit with further blocks and assistance from the private sector.
Impressively home-made, this is the sort of laptop we wish we could buy new - A Thinkpad Yoga, modded with a mechanical keyboard, may serve as a wake-up call to both Lenovo and Framework.
This is exactly what we said would happen post-Blizzard merger, laments watchdog, as its appeal continues - Microsoft plans to raise the price of its Game Pass subscriptions significantly – and one US watchdog isn't amused.
Central US region is back in business but Office apps still in trouble - Microsoft's 365 subscription services are down for some users, as the software titan also reports the Central US region of its Azure cloud is experiencing problems.
Tesla doesn't just have an US problem: It has one with EU, too - Tesla isn't just floundering in the US - new registrations of Elon Musk's electric vehicles have dipped in the EU and UK this year, too.
Oxford Semantic could help your fridge and smartphone pick up on your proclivities - Samsung announced the acquisition of UK knowledge graph startup Oxford Semantic Technologies on Thursday, to boost its AI smarts and offer more personalized experiences and content on its devices.
Over here, look at me, Donald, I'm over here, don't you want to tweet again? Woke! Antifa! Immigration! Cali! - Elon Musk is threatening yet again to take his ball and go home, this time claiming he's going to move X and SpaceX from California to Texas because he's upset over a new state law designed to prevent teachers from being required to out LGBTQ students.
Got a G3 iMac? Want to run NT? Now you can! - Ever wanted to run Windows NT on your vintage PowerPC Macintosh? No, me neither, but now it's possible thanks to some amazing FOSS work.
Bernie Sanders puts e-souk titan on blast for workplace harm - Risk of workplace injury is extremely high for Amazon warehouse workers during Prime Day and the holiday season, according to a US Senate committee report.
There's a lot of territory to cover here - Qualcomm has filed a patent infringement lawsuit in India against Chinese smartphone-maker Transsion.
Stop us if you think you've heard this one before: Legal supergroup demands billions from Verizon - Big Music has launched a fresh lawsuit aimed at forcing ISPs to take action against users who trade in stolen copyrighted content.
Hasn't said how it did it, but has form cracking devices - The FBI on Monday revealed it has gained access to a phone it says was used by Thomas Matthew Crooks – the man who shot at and wounded former US president Donald Trump on July 13 in an apparent failed assassination attempt.
Privacy preserved, with potential to lose the camera in your pocket or beyond - Chinese consumer electronics outfit Honor has thought outside the clamshell by creating a laptop with a stowable magnetic camera.
Chinese corp gives iPhone a run for its yuan - Global smartphone sales are continuing to rebound, partly thanks to a "buzz" around high-end devices supporting Gen AI, but mostly due to budget conscious consumers seeking out low-end devices.
Years of crackdowns haven't stopped some revolting stuff - China's many attempts to clean up its internet appear not to have prevented the proliferation of revolting material and products that abuse or target children.
High-end processor instability headaches, failures pushed one studio to switch to AMD - One game developer says it's had enough of Intel's 13th and 14th-generation Core microprocessors, calling them "defective."
Preliminary findings also claim platform not compliant with DSA requirements for transparency, research access - The European Commission says the blue checkmark system used by micro-blogging platform X — formerly Twitter — effectively deceives users and fails to comply with the newly introduced Digital Service Act.
Future Androids may let you dock them and use them as a desktop – as standard - It's been tried before, more than once, but if it comes as a stock feature, maybe people will actually start to use the feature.
Ice ICE, baby - The Biden administration's electric vehicle ambitions are getting another boost, this time in the form of $1.7 billion in public funding to convert 11 at-risk and shuttered auto manufacturing plants into electric vehicle (EV) factories.
And the AI PC revolution probably won't help, we're told - Owners of Apple Mac devices simply aren't buying new hardware as quickly as they used to.
Makes third-party wallets getting iOS NFC access a 'legally binding' thing - Apple has avoided a potential hefty fine and an antitrust case in Europe after making concessions that include opening up access to iPhone hardware needed for "tap and go" applications.
Scumbag targeted many victims – and those who tried to help them - A scumbag who used to work as a privacy consultant has been put behind bars for nine years for a "grotesque" cyberstalking campaign against more than a dozen victims.
Driving a new car in the EU? Get ready for a cacophony of beeps and whistles if you're a bit heavy on the go pedal - It was a big week for road safety campaigners in the European Union as Intelligent Speed Assistance (ISA) technology became mandatory on all new cars.
The joy of cloudy interoperability may be dampened by differently-sized free storage tiers - Google and Apple have signed off on a tool that their cloud photo storage services interoperable, but it may come at a cost to some users.
Devs of OS named for a mythical beast join in the 'local models will will deliver legendary productivity' trope - China has jumped on the AI PC bandwagon, with the team behind local OS openKylin creating a cut of its Linux-based software that can run AI models on the desktop.
Hitting youngsters with faked texts and calling them suckers is a bit of a no-no, watchdog sniffs - The US Federal Trade Commission has thrown the book at NGL Labs and its founders for allegedly breaking a depressing amount of child internet safety law.
It'd be a shame if something happened to that HBM fab, warns NSEU - Unionized Samsung workers in South Korea have extended their three-day strike indefinitely, claiming that company leadership refused to listen to demands when an end date was on the table.
Electric car sales break records, but Elon's luster is tarnished - US sales of electric vehicles hit a new record in the second quarter of 2024, no thanks to Tesla, which saw its market share drop below 50 percent of total US electric vehicle sales for the first time in its history.
Analysts hoping Windows 11 refresh adds fuel to fire, as OS market share finally on rise - Typical demand for new and faster PCs is returning to the market, Canalys principal analyst Ishan Dutt tells The Register after he totted up a third straight quarter of growth following several woeful years in the sector.
No doubt thanks to Vladi5555, KremLinda1776, RealAmericanPat22, etc etc - Growth of X's userbase has reportedly flatlined since Elon Musk took over the thing formerly known as Twitter.
Access, deletion requests go ignored, and consumer profiles contradict themselves, complaint alleges - Microsoft's advertising subsidiary is the target of a complaint from EU privacy advocates accusing it of "highly intrusive data processing" as well as breaking several General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) rules.
Not unreasonably, nearly half worried it would give them the 'wrong answers' - Customers would prefer companies to ignore AI when it comes to providing aftersales service, according to a report published today.
Printers were locked into HP+ cloud service, which is also getting the chop - HP is discontinuing its e-series LaserJet printers due to customer complaints, along with the HP+ and the "Instant Ink" toner subscription services tied to the hardware.
Because trusting your kid with 300 horsepower should come with a curfew - If you owned a Tesla, would you let your kid drive it? The electric vehicle marque seems to think you might with the addition of "Parental Controls" in a July update.
Samsung warned users, but the PC industry’s big players hardly mention the possibility of problems - Buyers worried a Copilot+ PC based on Qualcomm's Snapdragon X SoCs might not run software that matters to them are being directed to two community-run sites that crowdsource lists of incompatible code.
After button brouhaha, CEO rages Cupertino 'must be stopped' - Apple has twice unfairly blocked Epic Games from opening its iOS app portal in the EU, the Fortnite maker claims, and thus is in violation of the continent's Digital Markets Act (DMA).
Mozilla shows guts with its extensions – but that's the way the Cook, he crumbles - At least two VPNs are no longer available for Russian iPhone users, seemingly after the Kremlin's internet regulatory agency Roskomnadzor demanded Apple take them down.
Support line reports 'high volume of contacts' about the problem - Owners of Amazon's Kindle e-reader devices looking for something new to read may have had to pick up an actual book – the old-school kind, made of dead trees – for a day or so this week, as their devices would not download content.
DJI builds a power pack for off-road two-wheelers - Nations worried about China's ability to use its tech companies for more than trade now have a new class of kit to fret over: mountain bikes, thanks to Middle Kingdom drone-maker DJI's arrival in the field with an electric drive system.
'We're not there yet' on development of motors without them - China tightening its stranglehold on rare earth elements (REEs) makes now the perfect time for the automotive industry to start thinking about alternatives for EV motors, but not a single proposed solution appears ready for reality.
There's a lot of room for improvement in modern computing, from the low end to the very high - Two separate development efforts are improving both Raspberry Pi power management and memory efficiency – one using tools built for massive clusters.
Slump in Surface sales suspected as one reason for move online - Microsoft has closed its physical shops in mainland China, leaving sale of its products to partners and online sellers, including its own website.
Talk about painfully invasive processes - A Texas law requiring adults to show their ID to access online pornography will be heard by the US Supreme Court, setting up a potential domino effect that could undo - or reinforce - similar laws in 18 other states.
Nation turns once again to technology to help with declining population - Japan has loosened its ride-sharing rules to allow more passengers to use the services when it rains.
As ever, terms and conditions apply - YouTube has enacted privacy guidelines that allow people to request the removal of AI-generated videos that mimic them.
Sites and apps aren't given a say? That doesn't seem very free speech - The US Supreme Court on Monday told lower courts to reconsider separate, conflicting rulings on social media laws in Florida and Texas because those courts failed to properly think about the free speech rights of internet platforms.
Facebook, Instagram gobble up same data whether you hand over cash or not - European Union antitrust regulators have accused Meta of violating the bloc's Digital Markets Act (DMA) with its "pay or consent" advertising model, a source of complaints since it was announced last year.
Because the best place for a troubled supplier is beneath the wing of original parent company - Nineteen years and a whole bunch of controversy later, Boeing has decided to reacquire Spirit AeroSystems, maker of parts including the door plug included in select Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft.
Must be hard to face a huge, unexpected bill, amirite? - In one of the most massive patent verdicts in legal history, a federal jury in East Texas has ordered cellular giant Verizon to pay patentholder General Access Solutions $847 million.
Better management of critical materials or retaliation for sanctions? - Beijing has decreed that rare earth metals belong to the state under new regulations said to be aimed at protecting supplies in the name of national security, but which will be seen as another shot in the ongoing tech wars with the US.
I'll get you next time, Gadget, next time! - Despite a European Commission review in April clearing Microsoft of trying to exert control over OpenAI by the backdoor, the duo's $13 billion partnership hasn't escaped regulatory scrutiny just yet.
Funny what happens if you take Tesla out of the numbers, though - Interest in electric vehicles has waned slightly among US motorists for the first time since 2020 says Pew Research, with only three out of ten Americans right now saying they're considering a battery-powered ride for their next purchase.
Normally it's the iGiant's prices that give the ol' ticker a hard time - A quartet of heart doctors are trying to resuscitate health-monitoring tech outfit AliveCor's antitrust lawsuit regarding the Apple Watch, by arguing changes made to the iMaker's gadget "resulted in a loss of access to a potentially life-saving product."
Should you stay or should you go now? If Rosenworcel gets her way, there won't be trouble - Long-term carrier lock-in could soon be a thing of the past in America after the FCC proposed requiring telcos to unlock all cellphones from their network 60 days after activation.
Taxi app wants to prove it itself is cheaper, greener than owning a motor - Uber is launching a month-long trial dubbed the "One Less Car" challenge to demonstrate people are better off using its app-hailed rides rather than each owning a personal vehicle.
Why all three at once? Blame Syniverse – everyone else is - AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile US are today experiencing international roaming outages, leaving at least some American subscribers unable to use their phones as they expect while overseas.
Cultural traditions clash with manufacturing ambitions - India's Ministry of Labor and Employment has ordered an investigation of Foxconn – the contract manufacturer supplier also known as Hon Hai Precision and one of Apple’s main suppliers – after reports emerged alleging the company will not hire married women to work at its main iPhone assembly plant on the subcontinent.
Pocket-change settlements of $6M and $35M await approval in July - Apple is preparing to settle two lawsuits next month over alleged iPhone flaws, provided the respective judges agree to the terms of the deals.
White House can get back to asking Facebook and co to kindly bin off what the Feds say is misinformation - The US Supreme Court has reversed a prior decision barring federal agencies from coordinating with social media platforms to fight misinformation, on the grounds the plaintiffs in the case lacked standing to argue it to begin with.
The FLX1 runs its own build of 'Trixie' but has an Android layer - Furi Labs' FLX1 is a Debian-based smartphone with decent specs at a competitive price.
We sure hope this won't upset European regulators given how great their relationship is with Apple right now - A pair of developers have come away from encounters with Apple's latest rules regarding video game emulators in its App Store and concluded the iGiant is not okay with software that emulates a whole operating system.
What's the matter, you want China to win, huh? - It's been slow going expanding America's high-speed internet coverage – and city-level opposition to one proposed national law to streamline broadband roll-outs may stall things further.
Now windshield wipers are failing and trim is detaching of its own accord - Tesla has issued two more physical Cybertruck recalls, bringing the total number of hardware issues the electric-car maker has had to fix on the troubled vehicle to three in as many months.
Spanish sublet shock solution to housing crisis - Tourists in the Spanish city of Barcelona will have fewer lodging options come 2028, as the city has decided to evict operators of short-term apartment rentals.
'Congress has effectively gutted it as part of a backroom deal' - Introduced in April, the American Privacy Rights Act (APRA) was - in the words of its drafters - "the best opportunity we’ve had in decades to establish a national data privacy and security standard that gives people the right to control their personal information."
Recording Industry Ass. of America orchestrates war on Udio and Suno - Big name record labels are together suing two AI startups for allegedly training their music-generating models on copyrighted tracks without permission, resulting in the software emitting audio that rips off commercial work.
Steve Teixeira sues Firefox maker alleging disability discrimination, retaliation - Mozilla Corporation was sued this month in the US, along with three of its executives, for alleged disability discrimination and retaliation against Chief Product Officer Steve Teixeira.
iFixit hands out provisional 8 out of 10 for hardware designed with repairs in mind - Microsoft has received a thumbs-up from iFixit, with a provisional 8 out of 10 for repairability on its latest Surface Pro and Laptop devices.
Tit for tat spat could be avoided - China and the European Commission are to launch consultations on the European Union anti-subsidy investigation into Chinese electric vehicles (EVs).
Plus: Commission launches new probe into iPhone maker's efforts to work with new laws - The European Commission has published preliminary findings that accuse Apple of breaching the Digital Markets Act (DMA) by preventing developers from telling customers about options outside the App Store.
All depends on how you count it – Chocolate Factory claims 1% fail rate - Google this week offered reassurance that its vetting of Chrome extensions catches most malicious code, even as it acknowledged that "as with any software, extensions can also introduce risk."
These privacy rules might harm privacy! No, really, that's totally why we're doing this - Apple has delayed plans to deploy artificial intelligence features in Europe because the American giant is unhappy with the continent's privacy regulations.
'Substantial proportion' of America to get a little note from next month - Change Healthcare is formally notifying some of its pharmacy and hospital customers that their patients' data was stolen from it by ransomware criminals back in February – and for the first time has concretely disclosed the types of information swiped during that IT intrusion.
Campus faces yet another racial discrimination lawsuit as Clean Air Act violations claims also hit the fan - Yet another lawsuit was this week filed against Tesla citing a "systemically … racially hostile work environment" at the company's Fremont, California plant.
Google's self-driving cars can be tested in way mo' streets now - The way is paved for autonomous vehicle company Waymo to extend taxi services beyond San Francisco and into the San Francisco Peninsula and Los Angeles.
Open Web Advocacy report calls for these extensive changes to iGiant's rules - The results of the European Commission's inquiry into Apple's response to the continent's competition rules are expected to surface soon – and reports indicate the regulators are less than enamored with Cook & Co.
Won't somebody pleeease think of the ... oh, right, they are - A lawsuit accusing Google of breaking America's child privacy laws will proceed to trial as a judge denied the web goliath's motion to throw out the case.
Two ransomware gangs bragged of massive theft of personal info and medical files - Consulting Radiologists has notified almost 512,000 patients that digital intruders accessed their personal and medical information during a February cyberattack.
Blockade begins July 20 over national security fears - The Biden administration has banned the sale of Kaspersky software in the United States, arguing the Russian biz is a national security risk.
Downtime set to crash into next week - The vendor behind the software on which nearly 15,000 car dealerships across the US rely says an ongoing "cyber incident" has forced it to pull systems offline for a second time in as many days.
Class action allowed to continue with EV maker's 'tying' practices the focus - A judge has ruled that Tesla must face a lawsuit alleging the electric car manufacturer denies customers and third parties the right to repair its vehicles.
Germans cooling on proper EVs, according to auto industry group - The market share of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) is declining in Europe while hybrid electric cars are proving more popular.
Nice computer. Shame if anything happened to it - Shiny new Surface 7 devices are starting to arrive, but a lack of recovery media is causing problems for some users.
FWIW Microsoft says 'your apps run great' even when emulated on Arm - Samsung has debuted Copilot+ PCs running on Qualcomm processors, but warned buyers in South Korea – and seemingly only that nation – that they won't run many common applications.
Andrew Forrest has spent five years railing against promos that falsely claim he's found the route to crypto riches - Australian billionaire Andrew Forrest has won the right to sue Meta over ads it carried that falsely depict him endorsing cryptocurrencies and other financial services products.
Judge asked to green-light payout to shareholders over SEP license and bundling claims - Qualcomm investors say if the company stumps up $75 million, this should resolve lawsuits they brought over claims the chipmaker misled them by describing its sales and tech licensing businesses as separate concerns, artificially inflating the share price at the same time.
Study finds they're taking Putin pushers' point of view 30% of the time - Media analyst house NewsGuard tested chatbots from ten top AI developers, and found they all were willing to emit Russian disinformation to varying degrees.
Hey Andy, how you like them Big Apples? - The Amazon Labor Union, which represents the internet giant's workers at its JFK8 warehouse on Staten Island, New York, voted overwhelmingly to ally with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters on Tuesday.
Is such a thing possible for an industry that never respected people's wishes? - Mozilla this week said it has acquired ad metrics firm Anonym, touting the deal as a way to help the online advertising industry support user privacy while delivering effective adverts.
Academic-industry project takes next step as key promoter chip designer licks its wounds - A group of technology organizations has formed the CHERI Alliance CIC (Community Interest Company) to promote industry adoption of the security technology focused on memory access.
Beijing's interest in generative AI has its limits - Chinese web giant Tencent has floated the idea of banning AI-generated videos on its Weixin Channel service, in the grounds that they are low–quality content.
Something like ... Side effects may include low self esteem, short attention span, and intrusive ads? - US Surgeon General Dr Vivek Murthy today said official warning labels should be slapped on social media networks.
South Korean outfit that triggered the world's 'Crypto Winter' will melt away after SEC order - Terraform Labs, the outfit behind the $40 billion crash of the TerraUSD stablecoin and its sibling Luna (LUNA) tokens, will pay $4.5 billion to creditors and authorities, then wind itself up.
As more than 70 civil society groups sign open letter slamming 'intimidation' - Meta allegedly tried to discredit university researchers in Brazil who had flagged fraudulent adverts on the social network's ad platform.
iBiz potentially facing hefty penalties under the Digital Markets Act - The European Commission is said to be preparing to file charges against Apple alleging that its "steering" rules, imposed on third-party developers distributing software through the App Store, violate Europe's Digital Markets Act (DMA).
Facebook parent calls step forward for privacy a 'step backwards' - Meta has caved to European regulators, and agreed to pause its plans to train AI models on EU users' Facebook and Instagram users' posts — a move that the social media giant said will delay its plans to launch Meta AI in the economic zone.
Biz too broke, class too big to settle now; agrees to pay in limited circumstances like an IPO, liquidation - Unable to afford a settlement with "virtually anyone in the United States whose face appears on the internet," data-scraping facial recognition firm Clearview AI has decided that an IOU for a chunk of the company's future value will have to do.
The value falls but the rocket man still gets his gas money - Human ingenuity is not sufficient to construct a violin small enough to lament the fortunes of Elon Musk. The serial entrepreneur, polymath and media figure is facing the knowledge that the nominal value of his stock options from electric car company Tesla fell by $8 billion in the time it took to persuade shareholders to hand them over.
In this slightly more private era, your data ain't as profitable as it once was - Oracle Advertising is shutting down, CEO Safra Catz said during the database goliath's fiscal 2024 Q4 earnings call with Wall Street this week.
Might be more of a paper tiger given it runs at 2 GHz and has just 2 TOPS - DeepComputing has announced a successor to its Roma laptop, which was the first notebook of its kind to use a RISC-V-compatible processor.
Trade body bemoans move as 'notably unfair' but no countermeasures yet - China has issued a withering response to the EU's decision to raise tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles, describing the move as "notably unfair."
Raymond Chen talks teapots, and a fully engaged marketing team - Microsoft veteran Raymond Chen has shared the origin story behind the Windows 3D Pipes screensaver.
DMA-like law passes in pursuit of a more innovative and open smartphone market - Japan's parliament has passed a law that will require Apple and Google to allow access to third-party app stores and payment providers on devices running their mobile operating systems.
NHTSA already probing robo-car biz over crashes with 'clearly visible objects' - Waymo is updating its self-driving cars' software after another accident in Phoenix, Arizona, that the driverless taxi biz is blaming on faulty maps and code.
Growing coalition joins federal fray, accusing iGiant of playing monopoly - Four more US states have jumped on the Department of Justice's (DoJ) antitrust lawsuit against Apple.
Player MediaTek: Ready - The race for Arm-based Windows laptops could soon get interesting, as MediaTek is said to be preparing to enter the game, while the legal battle between Arm and Qualcomm could disrupt the latter's products.
Companies that cooperated with probe will be slightly less hard hit - The European Union is set to raise tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles, saying they benefit from "unfair subsidization" from the Chinese government.
At stake: Carmaker's licenses to make and sell motor vehicles in golden state - A California judge has rejected Tesla's bid to dismiss claims that the self-driving capabilities of its vehicles were overstated.
Priced at £2.80, but goes beyond £3.90 in conditional trading - Raspberry Pi's IPO took place this morning on the London Stock Exchange. Shares were initially priced at £2.80 ($3.57), but they surged to £3.90 ($4.97) during early trading.
Kids can be rough despite efforts to keep budget computers out of landfill - A Chromebook refresh looms despite Google trying to extend the life of laptops by offering a decade of service updates for models sold since 2021.
WWDC sees Cupertino up to its old trick of adding features - in this case a password manager - that compete directly with third parties - Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference on Monday teased assorted imminent improvements to the iGiant’s operating systems – including enhanced app security, support for RCS in Messages, and a dedicated password management app.
Cupertino promises private smarts, on-device or in the cloud - At its Worldwide Developer Conference on Monday, CEO Tim Cook proclaimed from the roof of Apple's headquarters the arrival of "profound" intelligence capabilities in the iPhone giant's products.
What's German for 'thank goodness for actually useful privacy regulations'? - Meta will start training its AI models using everyone's social media posts though European Union users can opt out, a luxury the rest of the world won't enjoy.
Customers not amused - A BIOS update from HP is bricking some of its computers, and customers are potentially facing hefty bills for replacement hardware.
And you thought the Raspberry Pi 5 was getting expensive... - The Raspberry Pi IPO could see the company given a market capitalization of £540 million ($686 million) amid speculation that shares may be priced around £2.80 ($3.56).
He needs that compensation because he's easily dist- oo a piece of candy! - With a week to go until Tesla's Annual Stockholders' Meeting, board chair Robyn Denholm has written to investors to make sure they ratify CEO Elon Musk's monster pay package – apparently out of fear he could walk.
And customers are sweating their hardware assets for longer - Fewer and fewer pages are being printed at home and in the office, posing something of a challenge for HP and its rivals.
This study is bad, so so bad. The worst study ever. Did you know Hillary Clinton created ISIS? - After convicted criminal and twice indicted former president Donald Trump and 70,000 other accounts were booted from Twitter following the January 6 riots, the spread of misleading information on the platform fell.
No, this isn't the weird logic of cryptocurrency infecting the IRS. It's a 'Fight us and everyone loses even more' kinda deal - Imploded cryptocurrency exchange FTX owes a lot of people a lot of money – but has convinced America's tax collectors at the IRS to give it a massive discount on its $24 billion tax bill.
Tycoon's private firms got Nvidia GPUs first because automaker couldn’t use them yet - Tesla CEO Elon Musk has confirmed he redirected Nvidia H100 GPUs intended for the car manufacturer to X and xAI, two private firms he owns.
Beware of zero-click malware sliding into your DMs - Miscreants exploited a zero-day in TikTok to compromised the accounts of CNN and other big names. The app maker has confirmed there was a cyberattack, and that it has scrambled to secure accounts and prevent any further exploitation.
Musky network celebrates free speech win ... after not opposing takedown of similar fare - Australia's eSafety commissioner has ended legal action that aimed to compel social network X to take down a video depicting a knife attack on a clergyman classified as an act of terror under local law.
Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger wants benchmarks to go beyond TOPS but warns we’re in for months of uncertainty - The dominant theme at this year's Computex conf in Taiwan is that tens of millions of "AI PCs" will sell this year, and more the year after. But despite all the enthusiasm, the qualities of an AI PC have become even more uncertain – and clarity is many months away.
If you're wondering why connectivity seems toast at the moment - Many AT&T subscribers in America have been unable to make calls to folks on other carriers for several hours today.
'We are updating our terms to clarify this' Pixel giant tells The Reg - Google has disavowed language in its terms'n'conditions that says the Pixel and Chromebook giant will confiscate devices sent in for repairs that contain unapproved parts.
Tesla left out due to HD mapping roadblock - China has given the go-ahead to nine local car brands to start testing level three autonomous vehicles on public roads.
Mazda, Yamaha, Honda, Suzuki all copped to lying on reports, while Toyota is still under investigation - Several Japanese automakers have been caught falsifying certification tests, and Toyota might be the worst offender.
Intel boss reveals first 18A silicon will run next week as he undercuts H100s on price and dismisses X Elite metrics - Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger has used his keynote address at the Computex conference in Taiwan to fire back at competitors Qualcomm and Nvidia, and reveal a product he thinks will make his assertions more than words.
Not unobtanium or vaporwareum, as it's coming soon to a 16-inch Zenbook lappie - ASUS has given the world what it claims is a new substance, and it's got a catchy name: Ceraluminum.
A bigger NPU, faster graphics core in GPU, and on-package memory will do that to a chip - In the emerging world of AI PCs, everything eventually boils down to TOPS: How many trillions of byte-sized operations can your neural processing units (NPUs) , GPU, and/or CPU churn out.
Just as we saw with housing, Facebook giant's advertising system seems to treat Whites and POC differently - Meta's algorithms for presenting educational ads show signs of racial bias, according to researchers from Princeton University and the University of Southern California.
That's probably wishful thinking, say chip analysts - Achieving a 50 percent market share among Windows PCs within five years is on the cards for Arm, according to CEO Rene Haas.
Still struggling to pull in supplies for homegrown 5G SoC, though - It seems that US sanctions are not holding back Huawei, as the Chinese tech giant has now risen to the global top spot in smartphone shipments, at least as far as foldable models go.
As Arm CEO declares his architecture is now the de facto Windows standard - Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon has used his keynote at Taiwan’s Computex tech conference to signal he wants to tackle more of the PC market.
Tiny percentage of users make X miss the spot - About 80 percent of the fake news shared on Twitter during the 2020 US presidential election came from just 0.3 percent of users, according to researchers from Israel and the US.
Who needs experts when you have an army of hand-picked super users telling you what you want to hear? - Twitch has reportedly dismantled its Safety Advisory Council, and apparently plans to replace the panel with chosen "ambassadors."
Refurbishing the next machine to come from the original inventor of the Mac - Vintage systems guru Cameron Kaiser documents stripping down and fixing a Canon Cat – the most revolutionary computer you've never heard of.
Owner ByteDance may be hedging its bets on overturning sale-or-ban bill - Developers for the short video app TikTok have reportedly been working on creating a clone of its content algorithm specifically for use in the US since late last year.
Suggesting people eat rocks or put glue on pizza? Yeah, that's some artificial intelligence right there - Google has finally addressed those unhinged web search results seemingly generated by its AI, screenshots of which circulated far and wide on social media this past week.
Tell us what's worse Reg readers: Microsoft support or taking your broken hardware into one of those stores - UK owners of borked Surface laptops can now pop into their local Currys rather than deal with Microsoft's own support channels for their device.
Customize and replace it all with one tool - Fans of repairable and upgradeable kit will be pleased to hear that the latest version of Framework Computer's 13in laptop sports Intel Core Ultra CPUs along with a hi-res display module and an improved webcam option.
Sky shipping allowed beyond visual range of operators – starting in Texas and then maybe an airspace near you - Amazon Prime Air has received approval from the US Federal Aviation Administration to fly its package-delivery drones beyond the visual line of sight (BVLOS) of remote operators.
As it offers 3nm shake-and-bake Cortex-X925, A725 processor designs for phones, PCs - Arm this week announced the availability of new top-end CPU and GPU designs ready made for system-on-chips for laptops, smartphones, and similar personal electronics. These cores are expected to power next-gen Android phones, at least, by late 2024.
All that data allegedly going for a song on revived BreachForums - Ticketmaster is believed to have had its IT breached by cybercriminals who claim to have stolen 1.3TB of data on 560 million of the corporation's customers – and are now selling all that info for $500,000.
Think this is bad? See what Big Media wants to do to us, warns founder - The Internet Archive has been under a distributed-denial-of-service (DDoS) attack since Sunday, and is trying to keep services going.
New chip and camera technology bring closer potential of hands-free road time - Like nuclear fusion and jet-packs, the self-driving car is a long-promised technology that has stalled for years - yet armed with research, boffins think they have created potential improvements.
But the repairability war isn't over, says iFixit's Kyle Wiens - A right to repair rule just signed into law in Colorado is earning praise from advocates for making the area one of the best jurisdictions for electronics tinkerers and DIYers.
Color us shocked: 66% of Apple users said they wouldn't switch for any reason - A coming wave of AI-capable smartphones may let vendors distinguish their devices via unique features and user experience, but it also poses challenges for privacy and potential user disillusion if there is too much hype.
Intel joins in with plans for better PC-Android integration - Tencent and Microsoft have struck a deal that will see the Chinese gaming giant's Android wares available on the Microsoft Store, and playable on Windows PCs.
New models will come with a year of Gemini Advanced, too - Not to be outdone by the shiny new AI PCs Microsoft showed off last week at its Build conference, Google on Tuesday said various generative AI features will be rolling out to Chromebook Plus laptops over the next few weeks.
You are the product, after all - PayPal will use data from billions of customer transactions to supercharge its nascent ad business.
Russian info slinger could be on the hook for posting disinformation - The European Union is reportedly looking into messaging app Telegram, and whether it has more users than the platform lets on.
Digital age of consent at 13 not even enforced, committee finds - A committee of MPs has urged the next government to consider a total ban on smartphones for under-16s in the UK.
Suggested heir is Putin-approved and hard to download outside Russia - Venerable instant messaging service ICQ has announced it will shut down for good in June.
Tesla CEO would have preferred no tariffs, even though they’re beneficial to his company - Tesla supremo Elon Musk is criticizing the import tax that the Biden administration has levied against Chinese electric vehicles, saying Tesla doesn't need them.
CEO tells El Reg the phone titan's 'refusal to be completely candid with us was a major factor' - iFixit and Samsung are breaking up, ending efforts to provide better tools, parts, and resources for DIY repairs that began almost two years ago.
Music to everyone's ears - The US Department of Justice, in the company of 30 state and district attorneys general, filed a civil antitrust complaint against Live Nation Entertainment and its Ticketmaster subsidiary today, claiming the entertainment giant has suppressed competition by monopolizing the concert market.
Apple and Samsung still on top, though, and pre-pandemic numbers but a faraway dream - The first quarter of 2024 saw the European smartphone market register its first year-over-year increase in shipments since 2021, and Chinese brands are growing the most.
SpaceX is smart on this, Cupertino and GL.iNet not so much - Academics have suggested that Apple's Wi-Fi Positioning System (WPS) can be abused to create a global privacy nightmare.
Why should we get its paperwork? - More than 100 medical industry groups have asked the Feds to make UnitedHealth Group, not them, go through the rigmarole of notifying everyone about the Change Healthcare ransomware infection.
$40 million to be raised for engineering and sorting out the supply chain - The Initial Public Offering (IPO) of Raspberry Pi is now set for June 2024, and $40 million is expected to be raised.
Underground tunnel testing now available for autonomous vehicles - Self-driving vehicles could be on British roads by 2026, following the Automated Vehicles Act becoming law this week.
Yay, meeting room technology - Logitech has unveiled a follow-up to 2017's MeetUp camera with the creatively named MeetUp 2, alongside a room booking solution.
Nyah, nyah: You can't sue for damages if we just meet your demands - Facing an antitrust jury trial over claims it monopolizes online advertising, Google has chosen to do the most logical thing it can think of to avoid the case being heard by a jury: It's cut a check to the US Justice Department to get prosecutors to strike their damages claim.
Fremont: Come for the toxic fumes and discrimination, stay for marshmallows? - A "two-alarm commercial fire" broke out yesterday at the Tesla factory in Fremont, California.
Bloc also recommends kicking Elon’s brother and Rupert Murdoch’s son off the board - New York City's Comptroller and seven financial firms are recommending that Tesla shareholders give a thumbs-down to the electric car maker's ~$50 billion pay package for CEO Elon Musk.
Bad news? The Apple Pencil Pro is not - The Apple iPad Pro 13 has a secret lurking within its sleek lines. A battery that is not nightmarishly hard to replace. Relatively.
Plus: Windows set for ML-powered always-watching-you Recall feature - Microsoft isn't waiting around for Intel and AMD to get their neural processing units (NPUs) up to snuff and is pushing its AI PC agenda forward with Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite and X Plus system-on-chips (SoCs).
Luckily we have the Wayback Machine - The web is melting away like so many glaciers these days.
Staff decibel level is high - and not just from all those jet engines - A union representing Boeing employees held a training session last week on whistleblower protection rights, suggesting the troubled jetmaker's problems may be far from over.
Blind customers complain they've been forgotten in rollout of latest UI - Sonos has alienated chunks of its customer base after releasing a revamped app for its music boxes that strips users of often used features, including making it nearly "impossible" for the vision impaired.
Has Cupertino been trolling us all along? - Apple! What the hell were you smoking? How can a market leader worth $2.9 trillion make such a massive marketing mistake as the advert for the latest iPad?
Follow us down this deep rabbit hole of privacy policy after privacy policy - In April, attorney Christine Dudley was listening to a book on her iPhone while playing a game on her Android tablet when she started to see in-game ads that reflected the audiobooks she recently checked out of the San Francisco Public Library.
Expansion set for Wuhan. Chances this will go smoothly? - Chinese tech giant Baidu expects its robotaxi wing, Apollo Go, to be profitable next year.
AST still only has a single test satellite in orbit, so don't hold your breath - Not to be outdone by Starlink and T-Mobile, AT&T and AST SpaceMobile have finalized a deal to eventually bring a space-based connectivity option to AT&T, too.
Judge gives green light to lawsuit over autonomous ambitions - Tesla is facing a lawsuit over claims made about its self-driving technology after a US judge rejected the company's motion to dismiss the case.
'We would never crush creativity,' says South Korea megacorp - If Apple thought it could forget about last week's marketing disaster — which saw the tech giant roundly slated for appearing to crush human creativity in the name of computing progress — it was wrong.
IT minister boasts of tech titan building network of local vendors - Apple is expected to have a quarter of all iPhones made in India by 2028, according to the country's IT minister.
Apple might be hanging on to nuked iPhone snaps for a while - Some iPhone users are reportedly seeing photos they had previously deleted resurface on their devices ever since updating to the latest version of iOS.
One eye on Windows, the other winking at penguins - Qualcomm may be leading the push for Windows on Arm systems, but the corporation also has an eye on Linux support with a roadmap for updates to enable the OS to boot on its Arm-based PC hardware.
The little computer that could gets ready for an IPO - Raspberry Pi Ltd is considering an Initial Public Offering and today published figures showing just how important commercial customers have become to the company.
Speedy storage for your Pi 5 - The Raspberry Pi M.2 HAT+ has finally put in an appearance, allowing Pi 5 owners to connect M.2 M-key peripherals to their computers and take advantage of NVMe drives.
PHEVs make a lot of sense for traditional automakers faced with battery-powered losses - Global passenger electric vehicle (EV) sales have continued to grow. However, plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) sales have significantly increased year-on-year, leaving their battery-only counterparts trailing.
Reports of collisions with stationary objects and failing to obey traffic laws - The US National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) on Monday opened an investigation into self-driving car maker Waymo following reports that its robocars have not been complying with traffic laws.
After years of people being victimized, it's about time - Google and Apple are rolling out an anti-stalking feature for Android 6.0+ and iOS 17.5 that will issue an alert if some scumbag is using a gadget like an AirTag or similar to clandestinely track the user.
Breaking news, perhaps literally: AI content blocking tool in Safari for iOS - The UK News Media Association (NMA) has written to Apple, warning that its reported plan to provide AI-powered ad blocking in iOS 18 threatens the revenue of news publications.
Staff in Maryland want better pay and steady schedules; New Jersey doesn't want to rock the boat - It's been a labor-(movement)-intensive few days for Apple, which found out it faces a potential employee strike at one store, while elsewhere defeating another union organizing vote about which its organizers are calling foul.
Either they learned to brake-check or motorcycles were following too close - The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is investigating two rear-end crashes involving Amazon-owned Zoox self-driving cars and motorcycles.
Pundit tells The Reg Intel could suffer the effects of retaliation - The Biden administration is reportedly set to quadruple Chinese electric vehicle tariffs as part of an onslaught of increased taxes on imports from the country.
Reports suggest an end of May IPO and a valuation of up to half a billion - A flotation of the company behind the Raspberry Pi computer could come sooner rather than later, according to reports.
Advertiser takes super-forum to court after demand for evidence rebuffed - Reddit was sued by an unhappy advertiser who claims that internet giga-forum sold ads but provided no way to verify that real people were responsible for clicking on them.
Elon Musk wonders why so many sour Krauts - Attempts by climate protesters to storm Tesla's Berlin gigafactory were foiled by German police on Friday, with 16 arrests made.
Musk's motor biz? Monitoring labor activists? Surely not! - The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is taking Tesla back to the hearing chamber, this time to settle whether it interfered with the organizing rights of employees at its factory in Buffalo, New York.
Industry looks towards genAI, interest rate cuts for reprieve as America hangs onto its old phones - The US smartphone market registered yet another year-over-year decline in shipments in the first calendar quarter, this time down eight percent compared to Q1 2023.
New-ish Kirin SoC performance doesn’t impress, however - A teardown of Huawei's Pura 70 Pro reveals that the China tech company's latest smartphone is mostly made in China, with one notable exception.
Leccy car maker ships bunch of vehicles, losing around $39K on each one - Cost-cutting layoffs have had little effect on Rivian's bottom line, as the troubled electric car maker has limped from another quarter with more than a billion dollars in losses.
Interrogations, confiscating flyers, and prohibiting literature is no bueno, board says in final decision of 2022 case - Apple tried to protest, but the complaints fell on deaf ears as the US National Labor Relations Board has finally decided the tech giant violated labor laws by interfering with union organizing activities at a New York City location.
Crashes continue even with recall fixes in place - The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has written to Tesla as the automaker's electric cars keep crashing despite a recall to fix problems with the Autopilot software.
Multiple Marketplace accounts sold fake bottles, cartridges for 2 years+, claim companies - Amazon and printer manufacturer Seiko Epson have filed a joint action against firms in Turkey and the UK which they claim sold counterfeit printer bottles and cartridges on the global online retailer's platform.
Oh, right – there's new iPad Pro and Air models, a pencil and some other stuff - Apple held its anticipated iPad event today, and the most attention-grabbing news wasn't the new device models or the refreshed iPad Air lineup - it was the unveiling of Apple's homegrown M4 chip with a surprisingly powerful neural processing unit (NPU).
Nothing like folks in Beijing lecturing us on the Constitution - TikTok and its China-based parent ByteDance sued the US government today to prevent the forced sale or shutdown of the video-sharing giant.
Musk continues quest to make Tesla leaner, meaner, more profitable - Another week, another round of layoffs at Tesla to report, and this time engineers are caught up in the mix.
Too many folks who should know better saying info-slurping tactics of Big Tech are just as bad - Which China do you want? The innovative good global citizen, adding to the storehouse of knowledge while making better products and services? Or the autocracy, determined to advance the interests of the leadership through any and all means, untrammeled by legal safeguards within its borders and, wherever possible, outside them?
And the iOS titan doesn't seem that bothered with data leaking out - Last week, Apple began requiring iOS developers justify the use of a specific set of APIs that could be used for device fingerprinting. Yet the iGiant doesn't appear to be making much effort to ensure that Google, Meta, and Spotify comply with the rules, it's claimed.
When bad management meets bad software, even great hardware is useless - Ten years ago Microsoft absorbed the handset division of Nokia. The world's biggest operating systems vendor was going mobile in a big way, and buying the erstwhile world leader in mobile phones to ensure its success.
Plus: What our vultures thought of the US v Google trial that's wrapping up - Apple had a moderately glum first three months of the year, though the iGiant found a way to keep the most important people happy. Yes, we mean Wall St.
Decline shown in data from StatCounter attributed to 'anomaly' - Google's share of web searches appeared to suffer an unusually large drop in April, according to StatCounter. But the metrics biz now says that's incorrect.
Visual Small BASIC, Chloe System, and QB64 Phoenix all updated - May Day 2024 was the 60th anniversary of the BASIC programming language, and multiple FOSS BASIC-related projects released new versions in celebration.
Put another way, iPhone sales were down 8% - Apple CEO Tim Cook called China "the most competitive market in the world" on the back of a somewhat poor quarter for the iPhone.
Loyal Wingman has fond memories of memory register exceptions - The working week is no game, which is why The Register eases readers into the weekend with a fresh instalment of On Call – our weekly reader-contribute tales recalling the lighter side of tech support.
Mac sales rose, iPads predicted to soar, and AI is riding to the rescue - Apple has announced the biggest stock buyback in US history: a $110 billion plan to slurp shareholders' scrip.
You've got to fight for your right to personalize - A professor has asked the US courts to confirm he has the right to release a browser extension to help people disengage with Facebook by automatically changing certain settings.
Also adds a Teams plan that's still under development - Anthropic, flush with funds from Amazon and Google, has made its Claude chatbot service available in an iOS app and introduced a business-oriented Teams plan.
Dear _____, please excuse _____’s tardiness. Their alarm didn’t go off for (see below). Sincerely, The Register - iPhone failing to get you up on time lately? You're not alone – reports have been spreading of just such an issue.
Not a great omen if you were hoping to own a future RV smartphone – tho web giant says it hasn't totally given up - Support for RISC-V was dropped from Android's Generic Kernel Image (GKI) thanks to a patch successfully merged today.
U-turn necessary to comply with Chinese law - Despite Elon Musk's insistence that high-definition maps aren't necessary for self-driving cars, Tesla's vehicles in China will technically rely on them now through a partnership with Baidu.
Historical email in antitrust case shows execs 'very, very worried' about capability gaps - A fascinating insight into Microsoft's inner workings has been thrown up in some redacted document dumps related to the ongoing Google antitrust trial in the US.
It's not like you need wonks to put driverless robotaxis on public roads or anything - The organizational tree at Tesla keeps shedding leaves, and a surprising number keep falling from the top with two more high-profile executives reportedly leaving the firm.
15 to 30% won't touch the sides... 50%? Now you're talking - Import duties of 40 to 50 percent will be needed to shield the European auto industry from China-based producers, according to a new report.
Carriers claim real culprits are getting away with it - the data brokers - The FCC on Monday fined four major US telcos almost $200 million for "illegally" selling subscribers' location information to data brokers.
Carriers claim real culprits are getting away with it - the data brokers - The FCC on Monday fined four major US telcos almost $200 million for "illegally" selling subscribers' location information to data brokers.
Electric Mustang tech active right up to moment of crashes - The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is investigating an electric car maker whose self-driving-ish software was involved in a pair of fatal collisions. It's not Tesla this time, instead it's Ford's turn in the hot seat.
Electric Mustang tech active right up to moment of crashes - The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is investigating an electric car maker whose self-driving-ish software was involved in a pair of fatal collisions. It's not Tesla this time, instead it's Ford's turn in the hot seat.
Automaker could really do with the training data - Tesla boss Elon Musk met with Chinese Premier Li Qiang in Beijing to discuss electric vehicles and self-driving cars.
Automaker could really do with the training data - Tesla boss Elon Musk met with Chinese Premier Li Qiang in Beijing to discuss electric vehicles and self-driving cars.
'Remarkably similar' to the Kirin 9000 processor that shocked many last year - A teardown of Huawei's Pura 70 smartphone by an IC research firm revealed the Chinese tech giant is relying on Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp's (SMIC) HiSilicon Kirin 9010 processor, likely because US sanctions mean the Chinese company can't buy from other sources.
Gay Gordon-Byrne of the Repair Association says US at least is nearing a tipping point - There's a lot of momentum behind the right-to-repair movement, and if anyone should know, it'd be Gay Gordon-Byrne, executive director of the Repair Association and longtime repairability advocate.
Compute Module 5 still on track for later this year - New memory variants were this week launched for the Raspberry Pi Compute Module family. Customers can now specify a 4S with 2GB, 4GB, and 8GB, as well as the original 1GB version.
Ouch! - Millions of Kaiser Permanente patients' data was likely handed over to Google, Microsoft Bing, X/Twitter, and other third-parties, according to the American healthcare giant.
Yes, they are harder to solder, but there's way more potential - The Z80 has a long series of successor models – some compatible and some not. There are multiple options for hobbyist computer builders.
Doing business in Beijing? 'You need to do a what-if scenario' - It didn't seem America's divest-or-ban bill for TikTok was going to make it into law when we last spoke with former White House chief information officer Theresa Payton – but law it now is.
Support chap learns users will try to solve problems in non-obvious ways - As another week drains down the plughole of history, it's time for The Register to once again deliver a fresh instalment of On Call – our weekly reader-contributed tale of tech support torments and triumphs.
Huawei is OK, but Xiaomi, OPPO, and Samsung are in strife. And Honor isn't living its name - Many Chinese keyboard apps, some from major handset manufacturers, can leak keystrokes to determined snoopers, leaving perhaps three quarters of a billion people at risk according to research from the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab.
Cash to go out as refunds to punters - The FTC today announced it would be sending refunds totaling $5.6 million to Ring customers, paid from the Amazon subsidiary's coffers.
As app boss vows to nuke America's divest-or-ban law in the courts - Between shutting down or selling TikTok, owner ByteDance would prefer doing the former.
Law responds again to pings - The FCC voted Thursday to restore America's net neutrality rules, nearly seven years after they were taken offline.
Might help to set spluttering EV market on fire. Won't catch fire thanks to built-in vents - Samsung SDI, the Korean giant’s battery biz, on Tuesday promised EV batteries that can charge to 80 percent capacity in a mere nine minutes, plus models that can perform at that level for 20 years.
It's the millions-of-robotaxis promise again – and all y'all buying it this time, too? - Elon Musk has a strategy and you may have seen it before: When things aren't going well, he'll say something wild to take everyone's eyes off the trouble, and raise share prices with dreams.
Who cares that net profit slid 55%? Not Wall Street - In a dynamic first quarter, Elon Musk's Tesla contended with a terrorist organization, survived an arson attempt, and fiercely competed with hybrid car makers, all against a backdrop of falling prices as competition for electric vehicle customers intensified.
Directive places requirements on gizmo vendors, but still needs formal approval - The European Parliament has adopted the right-to-repair directive with 584 votes in favor and three against, making repairing goods more accessible and cost-effective.
One wonders why are there adverts on public-sector portals at all - At least 18 public-sector websites in the UK and US send visitor data in some form to various web advertising brokers – including an ad-tech biz in China involved in past privacy controversies, a security firm claims.
Somewhere in Beijing, someone's screaming: Mother, PFACAA! - The US Senate has passed a bill that compels TikTok's Chinese owner ByteDance to offload the app to a US-approved buyer or face a ban. President Biden has indicated he will sign it into law.
In theory, this should make it harder for states to compel data-sharing to enforce anti-abortion laws - A revision to America's healthcare privacy rules aims to better protect abortion providers and patients seeking the procedure — and other types of reproductive care, such as in vitro fertilization and contraception — as some US states ban procedures and attempt prosecutions.
Strange tales from San Francisco - A self-driving Waymo taxi in San Francisco was filmed passing unicyclists and scooters – which would have been mundane if it weren't for the fact that the autonomous vehicle drove down the wrong side of the street to do so.
From first place to third as local brands grow - iPhone sales in China - the world's largest smartphone market - slipped by 19.1 percent in Q1 year-over-year while many domestic brands rose, pushing Apple from first to third place.
Risky bet? Premium price with 'no demonstrable benefits'? It doesn't sound like an order avalanche - While vast swathes of the computer industry remain hellbent on inflating the AI PC hype bubble, the response from some analysts and biz consumers is milder as they sit on the side to see how the first generation tech shapes up.
For some reason the world's most notorious app decided not to tick all boxes under the world’s toughest digital law - TikTok has earned itself a second investigation under the European Union's Digital Services Act – and suspension of its rewards program – after failing to comply with the law in two important regards.
Yet X remains a supporter of The Christchurch Call, an international agreement to stop video nasties - Australia's government has secured a court order requiring Elon Musk's social network, X, to remove all videos depicting a terrorist attack.
Because nothing reassures investors like discounting some inventory - After a week beset by disaster after disaster, Tesla has decided to reassure investors that it's still a safe bet … by discounting prices around the world.
Riveting conclusion to Tesla recall saga - While the vast majority of recent Tesla recalls have been addressed with over-the-air updates, the fix for Cybertruck's recalcitrant acceleration pedal necessitates a rare venture into meatspace. And it's as underwhelming as it is simple.
For now, Redmond is dogfooding Azure for product simulations - Microsoft has bragged that its own Azure HPC service was able to reduce the length of its Surface laptop design process – most notably for a hinge, which was reduced to one iteration, and hopes to use AI to do even better in future.
Bulletproof? Is it waterproof? Ts&Cs say: 'Failure to put Cybertruck in Car Wash Mode may result in damage' - The perils of turning cars into computers were laid bare by a hapless Cybertruck owner who claimed his ride was rendered an $80,000 "paperweight" by something as benign as a wash.
Social media use and gaming show steep increases within the age group, after UK comms watchdog given new powers - The UK's telecoms regulator has found that nearly a quarter of children between the ages of five and seven own a smartphone while a similar percentage use social media unsupervised.
Kirin 9010 SoC powering the Pura 70 is impressive, but doesn't indicate unforeseen prowess - When Huawei debuted its Mate 60 smartphone in mid-2023, it turned heads around the world after teardown artists found it contained a system-on-chip manufactured by Chinese chipmaker Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC) using a 7nm process.
Only good for calls and texts pretty much, and that's no mistake - Those who find modern smartphones too distracting from real life might be interested in the Boring Phone (no relation to the smartphone of the same name), a novelty flip phone based on HMD's Nokia 2660 Flip.
Resist the pressure to jump on the bandwagon just yet warns, warns Forrester - Forrester Research says that although 50 models of AI PCs are already on sale today there remains "no killer app" that would make any of them an essential tool for business users.
Stymied by sanctions, it had to go … but where? - Chinese surveillance camera manufacturer Zhejiang Dahua Technology, which has found itself on the USA’s entity list of banned orgs, has fully sold off its stateside subsidiary for $15 million to Taiwan's Central Motion Picture Corporation, according to the firm's annual report released on Monday.
Muted the audio? That's an advert. Paused a video? That's an advert - Will Roku TVs of the future throw up targeted ads on the screen whenever you pause a video? We hope not but...
Given the electric car maker's annus horribilis so far in 2024, does the chief even deserve it? - A Delaware court may have voided Elon Musk's $56 billion Tesla pay package in February, but now the board is asking shareholders to reinstate it.
For when the AI service cannot grok what it's being asked - Logitech has launched a free software tool to help existing users of its kit with ChatGPT prompts, but those that splash out on the upcoming Signature AI Edition Mouse, get a... dedicated AI prompt button.
Of course there's an enterprise plan for the Feds and AI trainers - Internet-scraping outfit Spy.pet claims to have harvested more than four billion public messages made by nearly 620 million users on more than 14,000 Discord chat servers – and is selling access to this trove.
EFF lambastes latest 'lazy and deliberately malicious move' - YouTube says it will intentionally cripple the playback of its videos in third-party apps that block its ads.
Japanese giants have big brands, but tiny shares of a shrinking market - Japanese imaging manufacturers Konica Minolta and Fujifilm have revealed talks aimed at creating a joint venture to handle printer manufacturing and R&D for both brands.
Hard-coded credentials last thing you want in home security app - Some smart locks controlled by Chirp Systems' software can be remotely unlocked by strangers thanks to a critical security vulnerability.
Says the IRS can do this stuff for free - As Americans go through their annual ceremony of tax day, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) has reminded the FTC that tax software biz Intuit is making bank on "junk fees."
Antitrust proposals could stretch to 30% of annual revenues for law-breaking app store monopolies - Apple, Google, and other Big Tech players could be fined 20 or even 30 percent of their sales in Japan if they break newly proposed regulations on abusive app store monopolies.
Shares of the worst performing member of the S&P 500 slide some more as news unlikely to please investors - Tesla is starting the week on a low note by laying off "more than" 10 percent of its employees just days after Cybertruck production was reportedly halted to address an issue with the accelerator pedal.
Someone forgot to tell Apple and Samsung as Chinese brands rebound - The world is collectively buying more factory-fresh smartphones again, with Chinese homegrown brands propelling shipments. Meanwhile, Apple reported a near double-digit slump, and Samsung also saw declines, albeit at a slower rate.
'Not all AI content is spam, but I think right now all spam is AI content' - We know Google search results are being hammered by the proliferation of AI garbage, and the web giant's attempts to curb the growth of machine-generated drivel haven't helped all that much.
Slow but bona fide made in China - Loongson's current-generation 3A6000 processor, one of the fastest designed and made in China for consumers, is now available in a line of mini PCs.
Another one bytes the dust - In an incredibly rare move, Google is killing off one of its online services – this time, VPN for Google One.
That 30% app tax may turn out to be a hefty liability - Apple's attempt to get the UK Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) to toss a lawsuit over its 30 percent App Store tax has failed, meaning the iMaker could eventually be forced to fork over £785 million ($980 million) in compensation to developers.
It's a bird! It's a plane! It's a hard drive! - A UK IT maintenance outfit is testing out drones to deliver equipment to customers, claiming this will help with sustainability measures of all things.
China, Russia have muscled up, and whoever wins up there wins down here - The commander of the US Space Force (USSF) has warned that America risks losing its dominant position in space, and therefore on Earth too.
'A strategy of half-promises and unnecessarily complicated hedges' - The right to repair movement just scored a major win with Apple's announcement that it plans to begin supporting iPhone repairs with used parts this fall.
But for how much longer? - Intel's Meteor Lake-based Core Ultra CPUs will power Huawei's newest MateBook X Pro, the company's first AI PC.
This would make the Golden State the third to enact a similar law - The Apple-backed California right-to-repair bill has made its way effortlessly through the state Assembly, and is now just one procedural vote away from heading to Governor Gavin Newsom's desk for signature.
Watchdog worries over electromagnetic waves, Apple disagrees - Apple's launch party for its latest iPhone was marred slightly yesterday as the French National Frequency Agency (ANFR) told the company that its iPhone 12 breached electromagnetic wave limits.
Personal AI can redefine the handheld experience and perhaps preserve privacy too - Smartphone innovation has plateaued. The iPhone 15, launched overnight, has some nice additions. But my iPhone 13 will meet my needs for a while and I won't rush to replace it. My previous iPhone lasted four years.
Thanks, Europe. Couldn't have done it without EU - Apple surprised almost no one on Thursday with the announcement of several iPhone 15 models and a renovated smartwatch, the details of which were more or less known or guessed by the cadre of analysts, journalists, and pundits who follow such things.
Remember Microsoft's first attempt at an Android foldable? Of course you don't - Microsoft has drawn a discreet veil over another of its attempts to become relevant in the mobile hardware space. The original Surface Duo has dropped out of support, meaning it is bereft of support as well as users.
On one hand, it's private-public cooperation. On the other, it's heavy-handed state intervention. We take a look at this important unfolding case - The USA’s Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has narrowed a lower court ruling that ordered the US government not to pressure social media companies to moderate user-posted content.
It's not hip to be this Square - Square says the widespread outage that hit its payment terminals last week was caused by a DNS failure and not a cyberattack nor an intrusion.
Any other monthly plans want to cancel themselves? - BMW has decided to stop charging car owners a subscription fee to use their heated car seats, though the German automaker remains committed to paid on-demand services.
Gas-guzzling US favors hybrids while Europe prefers battery power - Shipments of electric cars – both battery and plug-in hybrid vehicles – are set to grow by 19 percent in 2024 to hit 17.9 million units worldwide, according to Gartner.
Armbian 23.08 is out, and adds preliminary support for this ultralight Snapdragon laptop - The latest release of Armbian helps with the non-trivial problem of installing and running an arbitrary Linux distro on Arm computers.
In the march to rid world of third-party cookie tracking, we've picked up targeting APIs - Google's Privacy Sandbox is now open for business, the search advertising behemoth said today.
BIOS update incoming to rescue stricken users with exotic Intel chips - There's good news for those suffering from the dreaded UNSUPPORTED_PROCESSOR Blue Screen Of Death error following the installation of August's Windows update.
Targeted ads require data usage consent under EU regulations - A court in Oslo, Norway, has upheld the Norwegian Data Protection Authority's daily fines against Meta for delivering behavioral advertising in violation of data privacy rules.
Is that a relieved sob from Google lawyers we hear? - Margrethe Vestager is temporarily stepping down as European Commissioner for Competition to campaign for a job as President of the Management Committee of the European Investment Bank.
Well, well, well, if it isn't the consequences of Uncle Sam's actions - Chinese netizens have been laughing at the expense of US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, who will be surprised to learn that she has been crowned unofficial Huawei brand ambassador despite her country's efforts to hobble the company and China's wider tech industry.
As Asrock adds an AMD-powered 4"x4" not-NUC to its industrial lineup - Those mourning the discontinuation of Intel's quirky little Next Unit of Compute (NUC) mini-PCs can rest easy – Asus has officially taken over development of the product line. It's not exclusive, though, and already there's competition.
Does your vehicle really need to know about your bedroom antics? - Privacy-invading data harvesting by smartphones, wearable devices, smart doorbells, and reproductive health apps are well known, but the Mozilla Foundation has found the worst threat to your privacy may be parked in your driveway.
There's something very familiar about all this - Déjà vu time: Elon Musk is threatening to sue another civil rights group for losing him money.
Elecrow's dual-screen peripheral is more versatile and cheaper than the old Lenovo version - CrowView is a 14-inch USB-C monitor with a cunning folding stand-cum-clamp system which allows it to attach to most sizes of laptop for some more pixels on the move.
Can't have you finding the ghosts in those E-meter machines, now can we? - Right to repair advocates have made significant gains across the US of late, but the latest challenge to the movement faces a challenge from a surprising place: the Church of Scientology.
Not so much X gon' give it to you, you gonna give it to X - As August and summer in the northern hemisphere draw to a close, Elon Musk's Twitter is making several changes to its platform, including a privacy policy update noting that it plans to begin collecting biometric data and employment information from the people still using the site, if provided.
iFixit takes aim at the John-Deere-for-frozen-milk situation - Having won victories for iPhone and tractor owners alike, the right-to-repair crusaders at iFixit are turning to the really important stuff as summer enters its last death throes – ice cream.
Could a Surface mobe with one of these displays eliminate all that bad press from the Duo? - Microsoft's first attempt at a folding phone didn't go so well, though a fresh patent from the Windows giant suggests it might be holding out hope that a 360-degree foldable screen could make the difference.
At least the cost-cutting scissors are still sharp - HP is putting a brave face on its third quarter 2023 results, claiming it's making progress to long-term growth priorities while enacting structural cost savings, despite revenue being down nearly 10 percent year-on-year.
A queue gone mad leads to surprising results for 3D printing – but still no regulation - Just like an owner of a new puppy waking up to a scene of destruction, 3D printer users who leave long jobs running overnight may be appalled to see what they find in the morning.
First you'll live in a headset. Then come the chip implants … - The number of screens people use each day has probably peaked, according to Alvin Wang Graylin, global vice president of Chinese smartphone-maker HTC.
Demand may be 'tepid at best' but analyst sees return to pre-2019 levels next year - The PC market is expected to return to growth in 2024, according to estimates from IDC analysts.
Dissenting opinion asserts position is wrong and that many headaches linger - In its first enforcement action concerning the issuance of non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, if you can remember that sad fad, the SEC has declared they should be considered and thus regulated as conventional securities under some circumstances.
Google says it is. Amazon's swerves the rules, for now. And tests suggest consumer protections aren't yet strong - The European Union’s Digital Services Act comes into effect today, August 25, and it’s unclear if the hoped-for consumer protections are going to have their desired impact.
'It feels like the Berlin Wall of tech repair monopolies is starting to crumble, brick by brick' - Apple has endorsed, with caveats, California's proposed Right to Repair law after spending years opposing DIY fixes.
Play your originals for less than what last year's nonfunctional Lego replica cost - Hotly anticipated video games like Starfield not your cup of tea? Crave something a bit more retro? You're in luck: Atari has just teased a "faithful recreation" of the 2600 console model launched in 1980.
If advertisers weren't happy before, this is sure to win them over - Elon Musk's seemingly arbitrary decision making was on display over the past few days at the site formerly known as Twitter, most recently in the billionaire's decree that X will strip titles and text from links on the platform, leaving only a lead image behind.
And this wiretap, is it in the room with us right now? - Google was sued on Thursday for allegedly "wiretapping" several tax preparation websites and gathering people's sensitive personal data.
Web giant comes out swinging, says allegations 'without merit' - YouTube has allegedly been tracking children online and targeting them with personalized ads, potentially in violation of its agreement with the FTC and of the US Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), according to a report released on Thursday.
Don't worry, your downloaded games are safe ... for now? - Microsoft revealed Thursday it will shutter its Xbox 360 Store next summer, nearly two decades after the console hit the market. That will leave the IT giant catering for its current-gen Xbox Series X and S consoles.
Plaintiffs say recent partnership has 'magnified' danger and allege bypass of anti-stalking feature is allowed - A lawsuit filed this week alleges the integration between Amazon location-tracking network Sidewalk and Tile's trackers and apps has "magnified" the danger posed to stalking victims "exponentially," and claims the vendors have been negligent in the implementation of safeguards.
Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Profit down 66% as execs try to clear inventory decks - Lenovo profits took a nosedive for the second consecutive quarter as demand for personal computers continues to slump in the face of a crappy economy.
This is a great thing for free speech and must surely be a coincidence, right? - Elon Musk's X was this week caught throttling outbound links to several sites, coincidentally ones that the billionaire has complained about or feuded with in the past.
A plea for improvements for disabled people who rely on accessibility features - As someone who relies on Apple's Voice Control application to dictate, navigate, and interact with my iPhone and Mac via my voice due to a severe physical disability, I can't help but feel both grateful for its existence and frustrated by its shortcomings.
Promise of action excites some, others wish America had Cali-style Delete Act for personal info - An American watchdog today said it will propose fresh rules governing the type of personal information data brokers can collect and sell – as the White House hosted a roundtable on how to better protect individuals from unwanted surveillance.
You can still drive 'em, but park outside for ... OTA updates, says EV maker - Electric semi truck maker Nikola's fortunes just keep getting worse - after a couple dismal quarters, it's now recalling nearly all of its battery electric vehicles due to a fire risk.
Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand on mega-manufacturer's list of not-China expansion targets - Foxconn CEO Young Liu said on Monday that the massive conglomerate also known as Hon Hai Technology Group plans to invest billions expanding into India – a move that reflects a desire to diversify its bases of operation.
Music copyright bomb hits just as other court conflict leads to lending limits - The Internet Archive was sued for copyright infringement by a coalition of music giants on Friday, just as it lost a similar copyright claim to a group of book goliaths.
Is that a firesale we smell? - Intel has begun purging its Next Unit of Computing (NUC) lineup, issuing a slew of product discontinuation notices just weeks after abandoning its mini-PC division and handing the reins to Asus.
Blunder made bundled monitors more expensive than standalone purchases - Australia's Federal Court has fined Dell AU$10 million ($6.5 million) for what the tech giant has called an error in its pricing processes.
HP AiO devices won't scan or fax without ink, and plaintiffs say HP illegally withheld that info from buyers - HP all-in-one printer owners, upset that their devices wouldn't scan or fax when low on ink, were handed a partial win in a Northern California court this week after a judge denied HP's motion to dismiss their suit.
Bigger, bolder, and brimming with ports for hobbyists and devs alike - Asus has released a new addition to its Tinker Board line of Arm-based single-board computer (SBC) systems, giving hobbyists and embedded developers another design option with a plethora of ports.
Seven women bring the receipts, as the kids say - Twitter has been sued by seven female former employees who allege they were discriminated against on the basis of sex, age, race, and/or for taking medical leave.
Meanwhile, platform keeps paying creators a share of ad revenue, but without similar safety features - The site formerly known as Twitter is trying yet again to lure advertisers back, this time with a series of brand safety concessions that allow the source of most the company's revenues to "curate the context" in which their ads appear.
Education buyers ignore campaign group's intense criticism of device's lifespan, 'expect expiration dates for milk, not tech' - Chromebook shipments are back in the black – just – and makers of the hardware have the US education sector to thank where buyers ignored a campaign group's recent intensive criticism of the tech's lifespan.
Clock is ticking on April 2024 withdrawal - Fujitsu has confirmed to The Register that it will cease selling all personal computers in Europe beginning in spring next year.
A PC is a PC is a PC, and by any other name would not have taken down the intranet - Welcome, gentle reader, to the safe place we call Who, Me? where Register readers tell us about the times when their brilliance shone a little dimmer than was needed to reach a brighter future.
I Have Been Pw, er, Indexed - Google is carrying out its corporate mission statement – to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful – by offering to hide certain information in its search results.
We make movements when we talk, and gyro, accelerometer and sensor tech could improve speech recog - Siri's ability to recognize speech may be getting a boost through the addition of lip-reading – or, more appropriately, lip-feeling – technology, according to a newly published Apple patent.
Browsermaker says search service promotes privacy - Brave Software, maker of the Brave web browser, has tuned its search engine to run on a homegrown index of images and videos in an effort to end its dependency on "Big Tech" rivals.
Two hours a day maximum and a guarantee of no nasties - parents everywhere might just welcome the Communist approach to this issue - The Chinese government has floated a plan to limit the amount of time minors can spend using electronic devices and the content they can access, plus a plan to ensure the nation's entire content ecosystem produces age-appropriate material.
UK mulls an 'appropriate response' - Meta, after fighting European GDPR-related lawsuits for years, has said it will seek explicit consent from EU users before using their data to serve up highly targeted ads.
First some steering wheels were falling off, now others allegedly won't steer - The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has opened another investigation into steering issues in Tesla vehicles – the second such probe the agency has launched this year.
CMA admits Sony deal might change the battlefield - The UK's markets watchdog has reopened a consultation on the $69 billion tie-up between Activision Blizzard and Microsoft months after it blocked the proposed sale on the back of competition concerns.
Are we out of touch? No, it's the charity that's wrong - Twitter, lately known as X Corp, is suing the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) for allegedly harming its advertising business by documenting vitriol on the social network.
Here’s your metaphor for the state of the world: factory will be re-used to make EV batteries - Panasonic has announced it has quit the Liquid Crystal Display business and will use the factory where it made the units to build batteries instead.
Looks like it's time for the territory to ramp up its SEO offensive again - Hong Kong's High Court has rejected a government bid to ban online dissemination of a protest song that is often mistaken as the Special Administrative Region's national anthem.
Onsemi CEO says demand for silicon carbide surged – as investors pile in - While chipmakers, memory vendors, and fabs collectively bemoan slow demand and excess inventories, one segment of the semiconductor biz appears to be weathering the storm better than most: silicon carbide (SiC) power circuits used in electric vehicles.
This tech is certainly full of something - California's Attorney General is reportedly investigating complaints about the safety of Tesla's so-called self-driving features, as well as boasts made by the automaker about the technology in its marketing.
Sorry, FTC, didn't mean to step on you like that - Two US Senators have proposed legislation to create a government commission to tame Big Tech, an often uttered goal on both sides of the political aisle that has yet to be realized.
Plus: Did Xwitter just suggest stripping people of gold checks? Don't threaten us with a good time - The website formerly known as Twitter is trying to win back advertisers yet again with half-off deals on certain ads – and reportedly threats to remove gold checks from company profiles if advertisers don't start spending money.
It has a meaning in mathematics, and even more interested parties than you might expect - Twitter's new logo isn't just an X, it's a very specific form of X, and not only does it have a meaning, it also has some history behind it.
How quick y'all are to forget Nvidia-Arm - Two high-profile defeats in court do not a failed strategy make, or so says FTC boss Lina Khan.
Inventory holding reduced in Q1, hunt for new CEO continues - Logitech has reported shrinking sales across much of its portfolio but the rate of decline is slowing, causing interim CEO Guy Gecht to up sales and profit forecasts for the first half of fiscal 2024.
Something something don't cross the streams - Google has been ordered by a US federal court to cough up $338.7 million in damages for infringing someone else's patents with its Chromecast gear.
X marks the rot: It's Elon's fave letter and way forward for the 'everything app' - Mercurial billionaire Elon Musk has ditched the Twitter brand name in favor of a white "X" on a black background, and is kicking the blue bird logo out of the nest to signal a world-bending shake-up at the biz.
Still, judge finds 'reason to believe' Feds are getting better at not abusing snooping powers - The FBI improperly spied on a US senator, a state senator, and a state-level judge, among others, according to a previously secret court opinion released Friday afternoon.
Coming soon and looking very promising – if you like your models skinny, anyway - You can now order the new 16-inch model of the Framework user-repairable – and user-upgradeable – laptop.
Plus: Senator teases larger surveillance reform bill coming soon - A draft law that would prevent data brokers from selling US citizens' personal information to law enforcement and federal agencies without a warrant has been advanced by lawmakers.
I know, because I let it all flood in. And it was damaging to my mental health - In 2008, I formed a hypothesis that everyone has something to teach you, so the more connected you are, the more you should be able to learn.
Though chip giant is only referring to deal as a 'proposed agreement' for now - Asus looks set to take on the NUC brand from Intel, saying it aims to form its own NUC business unit to manufacture, sell, and support the line of mini PCs.
Will people really hop on a plane to gaze at their phone? - Singapore attracts millions of tourists every year, but lags well behind competing Asian destinations like Malaysia, Indonesia or Japan. Part of the problem is limited space available to build tourist attractions – the whole country is on an island. So the Singapore Tourism Board has turned to creating digital experiences to lure in guests and their wallets.
Look who is learning to share: Deal includes no admission of fault, naturally - Tesla's board of directors has settled a case with shareholders who accused its members of awarding themselves oversized compensation packages.
Redmond one step closer to $69bn Activision Blizzard merger - Microsoft and Sony have signed a pact to keep Call of Duty games available for PlayStation consoles for the next ten years, clearing a major roadblock to Microsoft closing its $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard.
There's never been a fruit winder like this before - An Apple patent application indicates that Cook and Company are possibly entertaining the idea of adding roll-up screens to everything from the all-in-one iMac to the iPhone – and even wearables.
While Zuckerberg's Threads reels in users at record rates - Despite the best efforts of Elon Musk, the world's most compelling/irritating social media platform has been more or less assured as the go-to outlet for the political commentary, shitposting and cat pics. But that looks set to change.
Mostly indistinguishable from a premium handset, but the moments it misses may leave you miffed - A confession: I have learned that the iPhone 13's facial recognition facility can successfully identify me while I brush my teeth.
Will get involved from production to hydrogen engines, hopes for €5B turnover from tech by 2030 - German engineering giant Bosch says it plans to invest €2.5 billion ($2.8 billion) in hydrogen technology, starting with fuel cell power modules to be used initially in trucks built by Nikola Corporation in the US.
So much for that 'zero-gravity' cooling - The SD card reader on Asus's Steam Deck competitor is failing due to excessive heat, the manufacturer confirmed this week.
Lawmakers, yet to pass a national privacy law, demand action on money - Incredible as it may seem, US tax preparation companies using Google and Meta tracking technology have been sending sensitive information back to the megacorps, not to mention other tech firms, it is claimed.
Making it easy to exit subscriptions will just baffle everyone, FTC told - The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is considering whether to make it easier for folks to cancel deliveries and subscription services. People should be able to simply click on a page or in an app to exit a subscription, and not have to go through a maze of bureaucracy, it's suggested.
Facebook messages, obtained via valid warrant, help make case against women - A Nebraska mother pleaded guilty on Friday to giving her 17-year-old daughter pills for an abortion last year and to helping her dispose of the 29-week-old fetus.
How much NUC would a Pat G chuck if a Pat G could chuck NUC? - The sun is setting on Intel's Next Unit of Computing, the chipmaker's tiny PCs better known as NUCs by devotees.
UK left as a final stumbling point to Redmond's gaming ambitions - The FTC's attempt to stall a merger between Microsoft and gaming behemoth Activision-Blizzard has been struck down by a US federal judge, who is unconvinced the mega-acquisition would harm competition.
Here's a hint: Leaders are putting laptop orders on ice - PCs were once the hottest tech item of the pandemic, yet these days most of the big brands are still struggling to find new homes for their aging inventory that isn’t a shelf in a distributor or retailer’s warehouse.
'We already have various legal options in the drawer,' says Max Schrems, lawyer who killed the first two deals - The European Commission has adopted an agreement with the US, reopening transatlantic data flows between America and EU nations as soon as the decision takes effect on July 11.
Let us borrow titles digitally from libraries like we can books and movies, say 'puter historians - Many of the games released in the USA that we grew up with and love are out of print, which is a bummer for those keen to preserve and chronicle the nation's computing past.
Rulings on affirmative action and free speech may not play nicely with diversity initiatives - The US Supreme Court has issued two decisions that threaten to upend efforts by tech companies to become more diverse, equitable, and inclusive.
Regulators concerned iRobot could receive preferential treatment on the company's ecommerce platform - The European Commission (EC) has announced an in-depth investigation into Amazon's proposed acquisition of iRobot over concerns it may restrict competition in the robot vacuum cleaner market.
It looks like memory glut and consumer indifference to smartmobes are persisting - Samsung Electronics issued a warning Friday that its Q2 profit would likely drop 96 percent, year over year – probably due to a lingering oversupply of memory plus overall economic malaise.
Our vultures ponder decentralization over convenience - It feels like for years we've been moaning about the disastrous effect of social media on society.
Meta rolls eyes at claim it used former Twits to create rival - Twitter, via attorney Alex Spiro, has accused Meta of stealing trade secrets following the launch of Meta's Threads app, a would-be rival text-focused social media network.
EU citizens' info could be at risk over new rules - The UK is expected to adopt a new data protection bill this Autumn. If that happens, more than two dozen civil society groups and privacy experts want the European Commission to cancel its 2021 data sharing agreement with the UK.
Beijing likes Zuck's old stuff better than his new stuff - Chinese state media has published a sternly worded opinion piece that makes it plain Meta's ambition to sell its VR hardware in the Middle Kingdom is unlikely to succeed – because, unlike his fellow tech titans, he hasn't been nice to China.
Plus: Facebook corp loses appeal on crossing data streams in Germany - Elon Musk's Twitter can breathe easy when it comes to European Union – the beleaguered social media platform won't be challenged in the single market of member states by its newly minted rival, "Threads" from Meta.
How to use a part of your computer you possibly didn't know it had - If you have a plain ol' vanilla wheel mouse, it has an extra button you may not know about, and that button has a whole set of handy functions. Here's how to use it.
Zuck's Instagram-adjacent Twitter clone to debut later this week - Twitter users dismayed by Elon Musk's chaotic leadership of the microblogging service will soon have an alternative – albeit one run by another tech billionaire. Meta's long-rumored Twitteresque effort is set to debut later this week.
Boss says it has traffic galore and a beautiful balance sheet - Yahoo! – the outfit that dominated the web in the late 1990s before Google ate its lunch – is plotting a return to the stock market.
Hey, Zuck - still want your own meme factory? - After months of speculation about its future, GIF hosting platform Gfycat is being put down by its parent Snap.
Hey Elon – here's an idea for your next poll: 'Should I step down as CTO of Twitter?' - It's been a few weeks since the chaos at Twitter rose to a level worth noting, but that changed this weekend when owner and CTO Elon Musk announced the imposition of limits on how many tweets users can see each day.
Such a blatant offside the manager couldn't see a funny side - Greetings once again, gentle reader, to the confessional booth known as Who, Me? in which Reg readers unburden themselves with tales of things they shouldn't have done – or that they should have done, and didn't.
Big $50,000 fines for misleading posts... unless it's political, natch - America's consumer fraud watchdog is revising its rules for online reviews and testimonials in advertising, raising the possibility of greater legal risk for those deceptively endorsing – or disparaging – products or services online in exchange for payment.
Web giant also hits back ... right as YouTube steps up war on advert blockers - Google is accused of misrepresenting the placement of YouTube video ads by playing them on low-quality third-party websites where they may never have been viewed. If so, that means Google has been taking millions if not billions of dollars from advertisers for video ads that perhaps no one actually watched.
Specifying PCs to meet the exact needs of individual workers is key to boosting productivity, explains Intel - For today's global enterprises personal computers play a vital and irreplaceable role in enhancing business productivity. However, in organizations with potentially thousands of PC users spread across different business functions, there can be no "one size fits all" solution for a single standardized PC configuration that meets all the needs of every type of user.
Psst, some American user data still stored in China, too - Five TikTok users who sued to overturn Montana's state-wide public ban on the video-sharing app have been getting secret support for their case from an unsurprising source: TikTok itself.
Another win for Musk: Ford, GM, Rivian and Volvo have already announced plans to dump CCS - The winds of EV charging standards change continue to favor Elon Musk, as the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) has confirmed plans to standardize Tesla's in-house car charging hardware.
There's gold in them thar mobes. Also copper, silver and cobalt - The GSM Association (GSMA) and a dozen carriers have announced a plan to make a modest dent in the number of mobile phones that languish, unused, unloved, and unrecycled.
Windows PCs in the cloud, spending Sony out of business, mobile woes, and more – and the files to read - Microsoft's US legal battle to acquire gaming giant Activision Blizzard continued on Tuesday with courtroom testimony from Jim Ryan, CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment, a company likely to be seriously affected if the deal goes through.
Data sales 'can do real harm' - The US Supreme Court's decision a year ago to overturn Roe v Wade has shone a light on the amount of personal, sensitive data that tech companies collect every day – and how that information can be used for nefarious purposes.
Next on the agenda: ClippyGPT, because why not? - An anonymous developer has created a ChatGPT client for Windows 3.1, because some people like to keep one foot firmly in the past even as they explore the future.
Tech tweaked ahead of rollout in July, Mozilla and Apple still not interested - Google plans to ship its Topics API when Chrome 115 arrives on July 12. That's the API that's supposed to allow advertisers to target netizens with adverts tailored to their individual interests without impinging on people's privacy.
Website can't use state contract law to police copyrights it doesn't own - The US Supreme Court has refused to hear song lyric website Genius' web scraping claim against Google and LyricFind for copying its data in search results.
Streaming biz terms and conditions searches jump 1,524% - Searches for "Netflix terms and conditions" skyrocketed 1,524 percent after the streaming platform debuted Black Mirror season six.
The American lithium-ion battery inventor has died aged 100 - American materials scientist and co-inventor of the lithium-ion battery John B Goodenough died yesterday, according to reports. He was 100.
Standards org's roadmap envisions three watt powerup and info sharing - The NFC Forum, the standards body for Near Field Communication, has detailed its key plans and research efforts between now and 2028.
Getting around the rules was as simple as not declaring software was 'intended for children', lawsuit states - Google on Thursday was sued for violating children's privacy through a program it designed to protect children's privacy.
Staff show up with the receipts – video footage of law-breaking bosses - Apple destroyed union flyers and interrogated its staff in New York City about their unionization efforts, a watchdog has ruled.
'Changing the world one PC at a time' sounds good to us - Uplifting positivity is not why The Reg FOSS desk went to Red Hat's Devconf.cz conference – but that's what we found.
That ads to hurt - American newspaper publisher Gannett is throwing its weight behind the hottest trend in digital advertising: suing Google for unfairly and abusively monopolizing the entire industry. Allegedly.
They're changing it wrong, aren't they Apple? - The European Parliament has voted yes to replaceable smartphone battery legislation, putting Apple on a path to a second redesign just over a year after USB-C charging ports were mandated in the bloc.
Rotating sound bar sounds better in theory than in practice - With working from home and bring your own device both now established practices in many workplaces, The Register's Desktop Tourism series decided it was time to take a consumer machine for a trip.
$23 million set aside to compensate for leaking queries to websites - Between October 25, 2006, and September 30, 2013, Google allegedly revealed searchers' personal information to third parties in violation of privacy promises.
Racist tirade at delivery driver never actually happened - Brandon Jackson, a Microsoft site reliability engineer, says an errant report of racist abuse from an Amazon delivery driver led to the suspension of his Amazon account and the consequent inoperability of his Amazon Echo smart home hardware.
Replacement components available in US, Canada, France only for now - Microsoft has joined in with the self-repair trend and made available replacement components for its Surface devices via the Microsoft Store, but only in a handful of countries to begin with.
Chap posts free specs for posh build with Cherry MX switches - Few computers polarize like the Sinclair ZX81. The cut-price micro is at once revered for being so cheap it introduced a generation to computing, and derided for the utterly unpleasant keyboard that made that introduction difficult for many.
Like PCs, peripherals are on the decline – guaranteeing a tough slog for the next CEO - Swiss hardware maker Logitech announced on Tuesday that its CEO, Bracken Darrell, would step down after over a decade in the role to pursue another gig.
Oh dear, look who hasn't spent enough on lobbying? - The European Commission (EC) believes Google may be violating antitrust rules by favoring its own ad tools at the expense of competitors and is considering whether it will have to break up the company to end the alleged self-preferencing.
'Appropriately pissed off' lawmakers won't renew without safeguards - US Senators have told intelligence agency officials that they are unlikely to renew authorization to use Section 702 of the US Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) without setting stricter limits on how and when government snoops can wield its powers.
As if billions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced - Reddit, the self-proclaimed "front page of the internet," is experiencing some turbulence right now, as thousands of subreddits have gone dark in protest over the site's planned API pricing.
Both create an aural oasis of sonic stillness. But only one let me watch John Wick 4 for free - For years, the first thing I've packed for any trip involving long-haul flights is a pair of over-the-ear active noise cancelling headphones. I adore the cocoon of quiet they create amid the constant noise of a jet – and appreciate the way they warm my ears and head while in the air.
Some of this kit is ending up in Russia - Uncle Sam issued a stern warning about the threat posed by Iran's development of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) — and reminded American companies to "be vigilant" in not supplying components needed to build these bomb-dropping drones and spy balloons.
Oh Lord, won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz, my friends all have Teslas... - Mercedes-Benz scored another self-driving victory, and on Tesla's former home turf, after being granted the first authorization in the state of California "to sell or lease vehicles with an automated driving system to the public," albeit with very strict restrictions.
Home-grown CPU looks suspiciously like a Core i3, but local firm insists it's a collab not a copy - Chinese vendor Baode Group has denied claims its recently released homegrown CPU is in fact just a rebadged Intel CPU.
Tune and hear us human-not-AI vultures get meta on the news - At WWDC this year, Apple teased what a lot of us were expecting: a virtual reality headset. What was perhaps a bit of a surprise, or perhaps not, was the eye-watering $3,500 price tag, that it looks like Ready Player One cosplay, and it has a two-hour battery hanging off it.
Bouncing them all – starting with government – but cash gets to stick around - Australia will phase out checks as a payment method by 2030, and the nation's government will stop issuing them two years earlier.
Rules are rules, say watchdogs. Well, there aren't any clear ones, biz shoots back - It's been a bad week for the cryptocurrency world. Yesterday the US Securities and Exchange Commission sued the world's largest crypto exchange, Binance, alleging 13 counts of fraud and other financial crimes. Today, the watchdog is coming down on the second largest exchange, Coinbase, for similar reasons.
Promoted bundled monitors are bargains, but actually sold them for above regular prices - Dell’s Australian arm will refund or compensate over 4,250 of its Australian customers, after offering them dud discounts for displays.
Workstations boosted, MacBook Air embiggened, iOS embraces web apps, and all the rest of Cupertino's new stuff - Apple didn't just introduce the costly Vision Pro VR headset at its Worldwide Developer Conference on Monday. It also found time to talk up its latest hardware refresh and pending software updates.
iGiant's turn to roll the dice on VR next year after Facebook, Microsoft, Google blow billions on the unloved tech - For its annual Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple today teased an augmented-reality headset called Vision Pro, its second-major product line expansion after the Apple Watch since CEO Tim Cook took charge in 2011.
'We are operating as a fking unlicensed securities exchange in the USA bro' - America's Securities and Exchange Commission has brought a legal hammer down on Binance and its cofounder Changpeng Zhao, putting the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange in even hotter water than it already was.
Leaked documents show a 59% ad revenue decline last month – can a Yacc smack get Twitter back on track? - Twitter's new CEO Linda Yaccarino is reportedly starting work at the bird site today, weeks earlier than expected, in the wake of a wave of leadership resignations and the same day it was reported that Twitter's ad revenue is well and truly in trouble.
Plus: Blackadder feels let down by the electric dream - A think tank says Britain is trailing its European rivals in the transition from fossil fuel to electric cars, and Brexit isn't helping. But subsidies won't either, the report insists, which pushes for more support for local battery production.
Pigs might fly before youngsters listened to IT instructions – so the IT manager made sure chickens came home to roost - Greetings, gentle reader! What a joy it is to see you, as once again we delve into Who, Me? wherein Reg-reading raconteurs recall rascally rebellions at work.
We crawled the gadget halls to save you the hassle - Last week’s Computex in Taipei did not disappoint when it came to weird and wonderful gadgetry.
CEO stands by decision to keep prices steady instead of scoring sweet, sweet, windfall profits - Raspberry Pi boss Eben Upton says the micro manufacturer's ovens will crank out a million units in July, after years of supply issues restraining sales.
Claim: Billionaire banked big bread boosting bizarro-bucks - A lawsuit filed last year against billionaire Elon Musk on behalf of individuals who lost money investing in Dogecoin has been expanded to include allegations of insider trading.
And here we thought being lead moderator for Elon would be fun - Twitter's second head of trust and safety to serve under Elon Musk has departed with little explanation.
And, ahem, other publishers - Here we go again: Meta has threatened to block journalism content for California users after the US state's legislature read a bill that would require it, and other large internet organizations, to pay publishers for using their work.
When's the perfect time for a mandate? When everyone's already doing it - To help cut down on car crashes and road deaths, the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is proposing a rule that would mandate automated emergency braking (AEB) technology in all new vehicles.
Pay a bill or buy new phone? That lovely question facing some of us in 2023 - Things aren't going to get better for smartphone brands anytime soon as households and businesses weigh up monthly bills versus discretionary spending, and decide a shiny handset perhaps isn't the wisest use of funds.
Very handy technology, literally - A US upstart has developed a solid-state active cooling device not much bigger than an SD card that uses a variety of exotic technologies to suck heat out of small enclosed spaces.
Is he out of touch? No, must be the employees, users, advertisers, regulators, creditors... - Twitter's value continues to decline. Investment firm Fidelity reports that its stake in the bird site has lost value for the third time since Elon Musk took over last October. By Fidelity's account, the company is now worth just a third of the $44 billion Musk paid for it.
After challenging Q2, CEO reckons channel inventory starting to finally clear - HP is counting the cost of customer demand being zapped by inflation and continued pricing promotions to clear higher than normal inventory after revenues plunged by more than a fifth in its latest quarter.
As much as 30% increase seen in some jobs as demand remains buoyant - Despite job losses among vendors and high profile companies, those with IT roles in UK companies saw their salaries increase by as much as 30 percent in the past year, a survey has found.
Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't after you - The best device to reduce road deaths, suggested economist Gordon Tulloch, would be a large steel spike in the center of every car's steering wheel. Focuses the mind.
Forget Grand Theft Auto. This is far tamer fare – controlled by a smartphone - BMW has announced a new in-car gaming feature available on its 5 series automobiles that allows users to use smartphones as a controller for software running on in-car screens.
PCs to chat with phones, watches, goggles – even the cloud when necessary - Qualcomm has used its Computex keynote to pitch the ubiquity of its Snapdragon platform as its challenge to x86 CPUs as the engine of PCs – by enabling more efficient AI through offloading workloads to a constellation of devices.
Try showing a remote clinician your injured foot without one - I've probably walked through my front door and past my hall table 10,000 times. But one April evening my foot caught the table, a toe blazed in pain, and a subsequent x-ray confirmed a proximal phalanx fracture.
Movidius tech already sprinkled on some 13th-gen Core silicon goes mainstream in next-gen client silicon - Intel will use the “VPU” tech it acquired along with Movidius in 2016 to all models of its forthcoming Meteor Lake client CPUs.
Coming to silicon near you ... next year - Arm is set to today announce more CPU and GPU designs, with a promise of performance and power efficiency gains for laptop and smartphone system-on-chips.
My Body, My Data sounds reasonable enough, right? - Legislation recently reintroduced in the US Senate and House of Representatives aims to protect reproductive and sexual health data and prevent it from being monetized – or used to prosecute people in post-Roe America.
Once it knows how to stop, anyway - Remember when the European Commission and the UK started investigating Meta on the suspicion it was helping itself to rivals' data and using it to build its own products, including Facebook Marketplace?
Walz's war on walls stopping us from fixing our own stuff - Minnesota Governor Tim Walz on Wednesday signed a bill that ensures the right-to-repair most electronic products in the US state.
It should really take more than half a million people to melt your servers - Florida Governor Ron DeSantis's plan to hold an "historic" US presidential campaign launch on a Twitter Spaces stream went about as well as you'd expect on a platform slowly collapsing under the weight of its former CEO's hubris.
Maybe the years of accelerators being hard to find and harder to pay for are behind us? - After more than two years of soaring GPU prices – fueled by demand from cryptominers and then made worse by the semiconductor shortage – things are finally heading in the other direction on price.
Facial authentication, video meetings may have to wait, dead security cert blamed - Users of Microsoft's Surface Pro X have found their Windows fondleslab cameras no longer function, apparently due to an expired security certificate.
Can police just set up CCTV and press record? In some places, yes - The US Supreme Court has refused to hear a petition to review the legality of warrantless surveillance from a camera placed on a utility pole, leaving in place a conflicting set of interpretations about the scope of privacy protection in America.
Bottom line weight driven by job cut costs - Chinese powerhouse Lenovo is feeling the burn as demand for personal computers continues to melt in a post-pandemic world.
Also: phones that fold through 360 degrees, rollable tablets, and an expanded OLED detector - Korean giant Samsung has shown off what it reckons might just be the future of display tech.
Officers said they didn't use live feed in the end. So that's all right then? - San Francisco cops earlier this year obtained permission to access 450 surveillance cameras belonging to private businesses to live monitor protests expected following the killing of Tyre Nichols, it emerged today.
Do you really need the latest and greatest cores to doomscroll the web? - To meet Chromebook users' most discerning needs, AMD has Frankensteined together a line of chips built from cast-off CPU and GPU architectures.
That's a warning and not permission, in case you were wondering - The US Surgeon General on Tuesday issued an advisory warning that social media, despite potential benefits, presents a risk to the mental health of children and adolescents.
Zuck and Co face Brexit bonus - Meta's Giphy days have come to an end, with the stock photo platform Shutterstock today announcing plans to buy the GIF library for a mere fraction of what the company formerly known as Facebook paid for it.
World's largest laptop vendor releases whizzy x86 - but we could do with a better Windows rescue party - The Thinkpad Z13 is quite different from any other Lenovo machine that we have seen recently. It's a similar thin, ultra-light design to the Arm-based X13S, but this is not an unusual RISC computer: this is in some ways a relatively conventional X86 laptop.
Wave-to-pay tech seems ideal for Jedi cosplay – if palmprints and veins are the biometrics you're looking for - Chinese microblogging site WeChat has launched the ability to make payments by swiping the palm of a hand over facial recognition devices.
Well, well, well, if it isn't the Leaning Tower of FISA again - The FBI misused controversial surveillance powers more than 278,000 times between 2020 and early 2021 to conduct warrantless searches on George Floyd protesters, January 6 rioters who stormed the Capitol, and donors to a Congressional campaign, according to a newly unclassified court opinion.
Zuckercorp says the EU-US Data Privacy Framework will pass before its penalties enacted, so why worry? - Ireland's Data Protection Commission (DPC) has levied a new record GDPR fine against Facebook parent company Meta for 'systematic, repetitive and continuous' transfer to the US of data belonging to EU residents.
It doesn't add up when IT is 'not really in a dire situation financially' - Digital business transformation expert and erstwhile COBOL programmer Kamales Lardi has spent a lot of time in the tech industry, including consulting with large corporates and SMEs who are going through a process of making cuts.
Winter in July for some of those in the web ad world - Google this week said some of its Privacy Sandbox tools will see general availability in Chrome 115 on July 18, in order to prepare for the slow phase-out of third-party cookies next year.
Someone who looks a lot like you could also unlock it, says Which? - Samsung, Oppo and Nokia are among a range of Android phone makers with facial recognition scanning tech that can be "easily duped" by a printed 2D photo, according to tests undertaken by campaign group Which?
Basically everyone at this point. But developer Easy Healthcare has promised to stop - In case of any lingering doubt about whether abortion and location data is being collected — and used to track — people in post-Roe America, a lawsuit and two investigations should put those doubts to rest.
Making different generations of tech work in harmony sometimes requires a strange dance - With Friday upon us, the drumbeat of the working week is slowing. But we still have enough energy to bring you another instalment of On Call, The Register’s weekly reader-contributed tale of out-of-tune tech support tales.
And holds off on Section 230 for another time - The US Supreme Court has ruled that Google and Twitter did not break the nation's Anti-Terrorism Act by publishing and recommending content that supported the Islamic State terrorist organization, also known as ISIS.
Dare we say, Broke App Mountain ... and yes, we know that was Wyoming - Montana has become the first American state to ban downloads of TikTok in its jurisdiction.
Seems someone really is living in la-la-la land, but who... - Six ex-Twitter workers are suing the biz in the US for allegedly not paying them their obligatory severance payouts. The sextet also reckons bird site owner Elon Musk never had much intention of paying his bills.
Stick with me and the mice live ... with pads, batteries and screws for two models - Peripherals maker Logitech has struck a deal with repair outfit iFixit to begin selling components and repair guides for some models of computer mice.
Gone are the days of unlicensed exchanges and anonymous transactions – for EU citizens, at least - The European Union has given final approval to the first set of rules in the world designed to broadly regulate the cryptocurrency market.
It's 2023 so of course it involves machine learning - Apple on Tuesday previewed several accessibility features planned for future operating system updates, including a way to have its text-to-speech app respond in the user's voice.
Plaintiff claims they didn't consent to analytics tracking - An anonymous complainant has filed a lawsuit against Google, claiming it unlawfully collects health data, including abortion searches, on third-party websites that use Google technology.
And just about worth the pain of a cross-platform migration. Eventually - I find adopting a new smartphone has become tedious and painful – especially when moving between iOS and Android. So it's a rare handset that makes me feel it's worth the ordeal of re-entering passwords, re-establishing virtual credit cards, ensuring 2FA apps are in order, and reacquiring keys for smart locks.
Completing a tough level doesn't mean squat if you can't defeat UK and USA - It's another one down, two more major hurdles to jump for Microsoft in its quest to absorb video game maker Activision Blizzard, as the EU officially gave its blessing to the $68.7 billion corporate takeover on Monday.
PLUS: India gets blood from a drone; Toshiba sets a date; Australia floats metaverse standards - China's OPPO, the world's fourth mostprolific smartphone manufacturer, has abandoned plans to design its own silicon.
Though we're not sure NBCUniversal ad exec Linda Yaccarino appreciates the description - Tesla investors have been huffing and puffing about how CEO Elon Musk is "too distracted" by his latest plaything for some time now, and it looks like a new Chief Twit has been found to throw under the Cybertruck.
In cloudy Yorkshire, a ray of light can become the enemy - With Friday upon us once more, the weather forecast assumes outsized importance as we all hope for bright days that let readers make the most of their time off.
Talk about going against the Grain - Google recently changed the default setting for adding invitations to its Calendar service in a way that interferes with third-party products. The Big G said it's just trying to block spam while some in the industry are calling foul.
We've got four words for you: Insert coin to continue - The European Union and the United Kingdom are at odds again, this time over whether to approve the proposed $68.7 billion merger of Microsoft and Activision Blizzard.
Where feature phones remain prevalent, Spotify is not an option and the 'net is little use in an emergency - India's Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has issued an advisory reminding mobile phone manufacturers they should include an FM radio tuner in their products.
Just a small experiment – for now? - YouTube has begun showing a pop-up to some viewers warning them that "ad blockers are not allowed" on the video-sharing site.
We sat through the Chocolate Factory's PR blitz so you don't have to - At its downsized developer conference on Wednesday, Google showed off present and planned Pixel hardware – a foldable Pixel among them – and PaLM 2, a large language model that follows in the footsteps of last year's initial Pathways Language Model (PaLM) and now whispers to various Google products.
All these analysts know is that their gut says... maybe - Meta Platforms, Inc., which changed its name from Facebook two years ago to signal its commitment to the so-called metaverse, continues to insist that the vaunted digital environment has economic potential.
Final Cut, Logic to land on fondleslabs – in subscription form - Apple has finally seen fit to bring Final Cut Pro and Logic Pro to its iPad range.
If Q1 was 'very solid,' what does a bad quarter look like? - Electric truck maker Nikola had an absolutely dismal first quarter, leaving it to refocus its efforts by pausing production and backing out of a joint venture to produce vehicles in Europe.
Why do this? Freeing up abandoned handles is 'important' - Twitter will begin purging inactive accounts, owner Elon Musk has said, but the specifics are anyone's guess.
Big i7 performance, tiny, tiny size - Intel has delivered a fine mini-PC in the form of the NUC 13 Pro – but missed a trick to make a great one.
It's time to take out the trash - New York State Attorney General Letitia James has proposed a law that would ban cryptocurrency exchanges from trading their own tokens, which in turn might save folks from burning their fingers on erratic or errant assets and investments.
Second time's a charm? - An FTC lawsuit against Kochava, alleging the data broker harmed Americans by selling records of their whereabouts, has failed.
Thanks for your service, now push off - Web commerce platform Shopify on Thursday announced a 25 percent increase in revenue followed by a 20 percent decrease in staff.
Anyone else still has to pay for once-free service to help social network pay its bills - The paywall around Twitter's API has crumbled slightly, with the bird site U-turning for organizations providing a public service.
iGiant now battles to kill off $2B UK class-action suit - Half a decade after introducing a software feature designed to dial back performance on iPhones with degraded batteries, Apple is still dealing with the reaction to what became known as "Batterygate".
Redmond ditches own line of mice, keyboards, webcams - Microsoft is a brand synonymous with PCs, not just for its market-dominating Windows operating system, but also for the mice and keyboards we've used to interact with them over the past four decades.
Go on, Elon, tweet a meme, that'll straighten this all out - Tesla broke US labor laws yet again, a watchdog concluded, this time not by suppressing labor organizing, but by prohibiting workplace discussion of wages and complaints, and blocking employees from appealing to higher-level managers.
As bizarre tales of tech support go, this may be the GOAT - Many a middle aged man knows that hair today is gone tomorrow, but every Friday you can count on The Register bringing you a new instalment of On-Call, our reader-contributed tales of tech support tasks that required tact in the face of trying truculence.
It's got an onboard Arduino Leonardo, too - If the idea of cramming a 44W Intel Raptor Lake laptop processor into a system the size of your palm appeals to you, LattePanda's newly launched Sigma single board computer (SBC) might be worth a look.
Apple only vendor to report shipment rise in tricky Q1 for smartphone industry - The visit from the Pope might have paid off for Tim Cook as Apple is the only top five smartphone brand that retailers are calling up to order more stock.
That's two in three years, in case anyone's counting - The Weather Channel is settling a lawsuit alleging it violated privacy laws by selling geolocation data collected from its mobile app users, its second such lawsuit - and settlement - in three years.
That's not very Unicorn Kingdom of you - UK regulators have dealt a serious blow to Microsoft's hopes of acquiring gaming giant Activision Blizzard, with the Competition and Markets Authority blocking the massive deal because Microsoft's proposed remedies "had significant shortcomings."
Qualifying for tax credits will only get tougher, so better plan that state-side manufacturing push now - General Motors and Hyundai on Tuesday published dueling announcements of plans to build electric vehicle battery plants in the United States.
Botched BIOS firmware, EXPO memory profiles possible culprit - Excessive processor voltages have been identified as the potential culprit of fried Ryzen 7000 and X3D CPUs and damaged motherboards.
Legendary R&D lab donated to SRI International where it will continue to innovate - Xerox is donating the iconic Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) in California to SRI International, a non-profit scientific research institute, apparently so the company can focus on other stuff.
As it preps to launch WhatsApp scam-shredder - The government of Singapore issued its populace a recommendation for ad blockers this month, calling them “underrated scam protectors” that sieve out fraudulent online ads.
Game maker's success getting anti-steering rules nixed also survived - An appeals court ruling today potentially clears the way for Epic Games and others to direct customers in their iOS apps to payment systems other than Apple's system.
Who annoys auditors? It's like picking on alligators – it won't end well - How delightful it is, dear reader, to meet with you once again on the confessional couch we call Who, Me? upon which Reg readers unburden themselves by sharing tales of things they probably ought not to have done.
Redmond wants you using Cloud PCs instead because they offer a better sustainability story - At first flush it's an utterly bizarre argument for Microsoft to endorse, but the PC operating system giant has floated the idea that businesses buy fewer PCs.
Agrees to pay $8 monthly sub for LeBron James, Shatner and Stephen King but others? Nope - In the same day that Elon Musk’s Twitter snubbed the Pope by removing his legacy blue tick despite personally paying for some celebrities to keep theirs, the billionaire’s personal fortune shrank by the biggest amount this year.
It's better than a one-way trip to the Graveyard - Google might have a history of killing useful products, but its Fi mobile service has survived seven years and, as of today, a third rebranding.
Coughs up $725 million to settle class action that covers 244 million users - In 2018, Facebook was sued multiple times for allegedly selling access to account holder data, contrary to privacy commitments.
Zuck's 'Year of Efficiency' starts with saving time not learning coworkers' names in case they're booted - Meta Platforms began another round of layoffs on Wednesday, focused largely on employees in technical roles.
Meanwhile, available data suggests biggest spenders have largely stayed away from Twitter 2.0, er... X Corp - Elon Musk took to the stage at an advertising conference yesterday to try to reassure attendees that Twitter was a safe place to serve ads, while also warning the biz won't bow to pressure from advertisers who want to dictate its behavior.
Another one bytes the dust - Intel has quietly announced it will end sales of its cryptomining hardware chips, less than a year after entering the business.
More than a third of US states now party to the lawsuit, which aims to break up Chocolate Factory's advertising arm - Nine additional states have signed on to a Department of Justice lawsuit against Google parent Alphabet for monopolizing digital ad sales, bringing the total number of states suing the search giant (in this case) to 17.
US PIRG slams Google for selling schools short-lived, repair-resistant kit - Google Chromebooks expire too soon, saddling taxpayer-funded public schools with excessive expenses and inflicting unnecessary environmental damage, according to the US Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) Education Fund.
Industry intervention alone can't deal with harassment - Depriving online hate groups of network services - otherwise known as deplatforming - doesn't work very well, according to boffins based in the United Kingdom.
This is, we're told, a good thing - Though Microsoft's mixed reality teams took a hit this year in terms of cost cuts and layoffs, the IT giant is pushing forward with its HoloLens 2 headset, with plans to upgrade it to Windows 11.
Everyone else, tough luck - Changes to US tax credits for buyers of electric vehicles and hybrids go into effect tomorrow, and the list of qualifying vehicles is quite short: only six US-based companies are present, and several manufacturers that previously qualified have even been cut under the strict new requirements.
And what are they doing with them? YouTube, lots of YouTube - Nestled in UK regulator Ofcom's thoroughly unsurprising report into childhood media literacy for 2023 are a couple of eye-opening stats revolving around device ownership.
Actual features pending, please pay us now - Elon Musk appears to be advancing his feud with newsletter service Substack by announcing he's turning Twitter into his very own version of the upstart, complete with the ability for users to monetize their followers and offer them long-form content.
OK, here's my question: Would you like to have it on x86 Linux? - If you're old enough to remember After Dark, you might appreciate this: a new screensaver. Yes, in 2023. It was never really about saving screens.
Raspboss Eben Upton teases products built on AI-enabled edge sensors - Sony Semiconductor Solutions Corporation has revealed it’s made a “strategic investment” in Raspberry Pi Ltd, the designer of popular single board computers.
Go on, take the money and run (Not actual legal advice) - Google has — unfortunately for some — fixed a bug in its Pay mobile app that was handing out free money to people.
Maybe soon all our friends are electric - America's Environmental Protection Agency today proposed a bunch of vehicle emissions standards that, while not banning gasoline-powered vehicles outright, could lead to automakers drastically speeding up EV adoption.
If passed, it'll be the first law in the US to require tractor makers to hand over documentation and parts - State legislators in Colorado have advanced an agricultural right to repair bill to Governor Jared Polis's desk for signature that, if passed, would be the first law of its kind in the United States.
Lawsuits keep piling up for Musk-owned 'trending to breakeven' platform - A trio of former Twitter executives led by ex-CEO Parag Agrawal have sued the company for allegedly not reimbursing more than a million dollars in legal expenses incurred during and after their employment, as their contracts oblige.
Despite layoff trend, IT staff seek mobility over security - More than three quarters (77 percent) of UK tech workers are unhappy with their jobs and have looked for another one in the past six months, according to a study of 1,000-plus professionals.
Also: India gets an Apple store; ZTE sells next-gen servers outside China; Foxconn invests in EVs; and more - Tesla is set to open a new megafactory in Shanghai to produce large-scale rechargeable lithium-ion batteries known as Megapacks, according to a statement issued by the company on Sunday.
On the bright side, higher inventories will give PC vendors the opportunity to flee China, IDC says - Apple's client device sales volumes stood out compared to its competitors during 2023's first quarter, but not for the reasons you might expect, IDC reports.
Sorry, make that Titter. We can explain - Netizens using Twitter's Circle feature may want to take note here.
Yeah, or else - Travelers looking to get from Fife to Edinburgh will soon have a new transport option: a fleet of five autonomous buses set to begin operating on a 14-mile route on the Scottish peninsula this May.
Intimate, disturbing moments became message board memes, probably - Tesla workers over the past few years have reportedly shared sensitive and embarrassing videos captured by the cameras built into their customers' cars.
OpenAI and Stripe snaffled a lot of what cash was dished out, or so this report claims - Year-over-year global VC funding dropped precipitously in Q1 2023, with at least $76 billion (£61 billion) doled out to companies at all startup stages. That may sound like a lot but it's a 53 percent drop from the same time last year, reports funding tracker Crunchbase.
Awoogah, awooooogah, new policy coming for developers - Developers creating Android applications for the Google Play store will need to make it easy for users to delete their app accounts and associated data, though not for a while yet.
Tributes paid to former Square CTO Bob Lee, 43 - Tech exec Bob Lee has died after he was stabbed in San Francisco in the early hours of Tuesday.
Germany alleges systemic moderation failure, more vendors sue over unpaid bills, and a new WARN Act suit - Twitter is facing a trio of legal challenges this week: German officials are going after the platform for not adequately handling user complaints, four vendors sued over unpaid bills, and another group of laid-off employees claim they were terminated without proper notice.
You win this round, Cook – but Europe has already lined up changes Britain fluffed - The UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) was forced to abandon its inquiry into Apple's role in the mobile browsing and cloud gaming markets because the agency missed its filing deadlines.
Only 35 of the trucks affected, but that might be most of the ones on the road - Tesla's electric Semi truck, which has only been cruising highways since December, is facing its first recall over a faulty parking brake. Unlike other issues, this one won't be fixable with an over-the-air update.
New layouts for the original 'clickier than the Model M' keyboard - What's even harder-core than the IBM Model M? The Model F, the keyboard that launched alongside the IBM PC in 1981. After a 2017 relaunch, new models with the original layout are here.
Manifest V2 will die another day - Back in December, Google postponed its Chrome Extensions shakeup because the project was unfinished and beset by bugs, after a previous schedule setback three months earlier.
Hey Bing, help me find a new browser, er, AI chatbot - So much for a good thing: Microsoft's Chief Marketing Officer Yusuf Mehdi said Redmond is considering selling ad space in answers provided by the new Bing chatbot.
Our vultures who cover the news weigh in - TikTok, the made-in-China video-sharing upstart that's outshone rivals, has copped a lot of criticism of late.
Big is not always beautiful - Just days after lifting the covers off the 13th-gen Core vPro CPUs, Intel has revealed the latest NUC line of miniature PCs, giving a decent chunk of compute power in a space-saving 4x4in form factor.
iGiant urged to think different about workers' rights - Apple has been accused of unlawfully firing and threatening pro-union retail store workers in two complaints filed by the Communications Workers of America with the National Labor Relations Board.
It's not a smoking gun, it's 'a loaded gun' suggests NSA's Rob Joyce - TikTok is China's "Trojan horse," according to Rob Joyce, who heads the cyber security unit of America's National Security Agency.
Is there a role for a poll for just Blue Tickers, not proles, or is this troll a social media own goal? - Even those who do spend $7* a month to get (or keep) that treasured blue tick next to their name on Twitter may be peeved to find out that soon only verified users will be allowed to vote in polls on the platform. Bring it on: electronic ballots where only 10 people click.
Dot-org vows to appeal after judge decides digitizing printed titles and lending them out isn't fair use - A federal judge rejected the Internet Archive's claim that it has a fair use right to lend out a digital copy of each printed book that it has purchased, raising the possibility of it facing huge damages for copyright infringement.
What to expect? 16 inch model, a desktop case, and both Intel and AMD variants - Modular repairable laptops vendor Framework has lifted the covers off models that are coming later this year – including one with a 16 inch display.
Age verification, a private right to sue Big Tech ... thinking of the children or political points? - To protect children, Utah Governor Spencer Cox on Thursday signed two bills aimed at "holding social media companies accountable."
Respected hands-on outlet tossed under the layoff bus - Photography community website DPReview will shut down on April 10, 2023, in conjunction with layoffs announced by parent company Amazon.com in January.
A good watchdog does blame the tools, or something like that - America's Federal Trade Commission has warned it may crack down on companies that not only use generative AI tools to scam folks, but also those making the software in the first place, even if those applications were not created with that fraud in mind.
Smartphones and tablets would also be added to the EU's list of devices that must be repairable under new rule - The European Commission has adopted a new set of right to repair rules that, among other things, will add electronic devices like smartphones and tablets to a list of goods that must be built with repairability in mind.
'Creator' machine is lovely, but seems unsuited to life on the periphery - ASUS's Zenbook Pro 16X OLED (UX7602) is a sleek beast of a laptop that invites you to take it head-on and go all-in – an offer that should give you pause before accepting.
A modern RISC computer trying desperately to pretend it's just another PC - Lenovo's Thinkpad X13s is a lovely, if odd, little laptop. It's a modern Arm machine that is trying as hard as it can to resemble a vanilla x86 laptop… and it carries it off.
Digital lending is only fine when we do it - On Monday four of the largest book publishers asked a New York court to grant summary judgment in a copyright lawsuit seeking to shut down the Internet Archive's online library and hold the non-profit organization liable for damages.
You've gotta protect those butter-soft OLED screens somehow - If you're one of the small subset of Apple aficionados waiting to get their hands on a folding iDevice, a patent for self-folding displays granted to Cook and Co last week is sure to pique your interest.
Alert noise is 'loud and distracting' for drivers, claims filing - All-electric vehicle maker Tesla is facing a potential class action lawsuit over claims that some of its cars suffer from a defect involving false collision alerts that not only inconvenience the driver, but could also represent a serious safety hazard.
Aggrieved investors claim tech giant fibbed to inflate stock prices... and it backfired - Google parent Alphabet is facing a proposed class action lawsuit from investors unhappy that the company's alleged advertising monopoly, and the subsequent DoJ investigation into this, led to "significant losses and damages."
The nearly identical class action suits claim Tesla unlawfully restricted access to third party repairs and parts - Tesla is facing a fresh pair of proposed class action lawsuits, and not due to vehicle safety: this time it's all about the rights, or lack thereof, that Tesla owners have to repair their vehicles on their own terms.
Distraction-free long-life e-ink handheld writing tool becomes a typing tool too... but leaves us conflicted - Norwegian e-ink tablet maker reMarkable has launched the Type Folio, a keyboard cover, causing one Reg hack to feel strangely conflicted.
We all owe three things to this pioneering machine – two more than you might think - Although it only gets credited with one of them – because Steve Jobs slipped up* – all modern end-user computers owe three defining aspects of their design to the Alto.
Online ad colossus hopes it can still make money when users want privacy - Google says it has partnered with Fastly, a content delivery platform, to support its effort to deliver targeted ads in its Chrome browser with a greater measure of privacy.
Shocking! - Talking robots designed to interact and help boost employees' moods at work are more effective if they don't look like humanoids, according to a British research paper.
However, those Ryan Reynolds commercials aren't going anywhere - Mint Mobile, the prepaid budget wireless company that counts actor Ryan Reynolds among its owners, is being bought by T-Mobile US in a deal expected to close later this year for as much as $1.35 billion (£1.1b), giving the "uncarrier" yet another prepaid offering.
Don't worry about Tim – executive's rewards are reportedly unaffected. Phew - Apple still isn't giving into Silicon Valley peer pressure to lay off swaths of its staff to cut costs, and is instead reportedly extending its hiring freeze and changing the way it awards employee bonuses.
Micron’s novel 1-beta node can connect your smartphone and the enterprise - When considering a new smartphone, consumers will generally evaluate the screen size, on-board storage, battery, and possibly, the processor. They're far less likely to consider the amount of on-board DRAM, never mind its specific characteristics.
Can we blame social media for this? We can try - The collapse and re-spawning, to a degree, of Silicon Valley Bank in the US and UK sent shockwaves through the tech industry, with startups and established players relying on the institution fearing the worst.
The Year of Efficiency may also include sending engineers back into the office - Meta – which claims without irony to be "building the future of human connection" – is laying off 10,000 more staff and will close open vacancies on 5,000 roles as it hunkers down for a "Year of Efficiency."
10k delivery vehicles this year isn't going to cut it and upstart really needs the cash - Electric van maker Rivian and Amazon are reportedly in talks to scrap part of a 2019 deal that made the retail giant Rivian's sole customer for its electric delivery vans.
Or how you'll spend your copious free time running CP/M on a cheap computer - There's more to inexpensive single-board computers than the Raspberry Pi. Some DIY projects are just for fun, but others also have immediate practical value – like a low-power, self-updating desk calendar.
Where there's disaffected twits there's potential revenue, and Facebook parent smells blood – er, profit - Not content to sit on the sidelines while Twitter falters, Facebook parent Meta is working on a text-focused competitor, based on the decentralized bones of fediverse favorite Mastodon.
Is Lenovo's fastest, thinnest, lightest flagship good at this sort of thing? - The Reg FOSS desk took Lenovo's new Alder Lake-powered executive laptop for a spin. It's a lovely machine… but with some significant limitations.
It’s red, it’s fast, it packs 4th-gen Xeons and Nvidia RTX 6000s, and it looks like it’s been run over by a sports car - Lenovo has updated its range of desktop workstations, given them fourth-gen Xeon CPUs, the ability to handle four Nvidia GPUs, and a grille designed by Aston Martin.
Ten-year deal to put Call of Duty on PlayStation shot down - Microsoft has once again proposed a ten-year licensing deal with Sony to appease British watchdog concerns over the Windows giant's proposed $69 billion takeover of Activision Blizzard – but the PlayStation maker isn't having any of it.
Don't say you weren't warned - Last year, around the Thanksgiving holiday, Ohio businessman Michael Larkin received a request for video from his Amazon Ring security system from Hamilton city police.
Talk about off the back of a lorry - Four men accused of stealing more than $1 million worth of products from Microsoft's cargo trucks in the US have been charged with multiple counts including felony grand theft. California state police arrested two of the suspects on February 2, and the other two remain at large.
How will Elon conform to FTC decrees and EU laws? He probably doesn't know, either - It turns out that, when you buy the internet's "town square" and fire most of the people who run it, governments on both sides of the pond want to have a talk with you about user safety and security.
Sorry, you're Zucked - Meta Platforms, parent of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, architect of a metaverse, aggregator of eyeballs, is said to be preparing to layoff employees again.
This internet soap opera continues - A Twitter employee unable to work out if he still had a job - even after a call to the head of HR - took to tweeting CEO Elon Musk to resolve his employment status. It went about as well as expected - if not worse.
Retirement of Windows 10 should eventually drive recovery in 2024 and 2025 - The PC and tablet markets are in such a bad slump that analyst firm IDC has lowered its 2023 shipment forecast by 26 million.
Meanwhile, TikTok analog Douyin cleans up 5,000 misbehaving e-commerce accounts - The number of Chinese netizens who use short video platforms has passed one billion, according to a report from the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC).
Crunch licensing talks with rivals may ease antitrust fears - Microsoft may be catching a break on its contentious bid to buy game maker Activision Blizzard for $69 billion.
Once again, the status page is oblivious - Elon Musk's Twitter got off to a bad start on Monday when it introduced further unexpected changes in the form of broken links and images.
Chip outfit reportedly afraid it would have to report any transaction with a SoftBank company to UK regulator - Arm's decision not to list on the London Stock Exchange for its public offering is being blamed by some on financial rules, or rather on the UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) not being sufficiently flexible in waiving those rules.
Then they plunged properly like all other client devices - PC sales may have slumped during 2022, but a record number of workstations – 7.7 million – were snapped up by buyers, delivering 2.1 percent year-on-year growth.
Whatever happened to small government that stays out of our lives - A proposed Texas state law would make it a criminal offense for internet service providers (ISPs) to provide access to websites that sell abortion pills or provide information about the procedure.
Probe shows that – to absolutely no-one's surprise – big biz isn't playing ball - Websites often provide visitors with the opportunity to opt out of data collection. This is not out of their abundant concern for your privacy – it's the law and they're forced to do it. But according to a trio of privacy researchers, opting out doesn't always work – visitor data still gets collected.
977 EliteBook x360 830 G6 Notebooks makes one Enrique Lores - PC and print biz HP paid its CEO more than $20 million in the corporation's fiscal 2022 calendar, a 12 month period when revenue dipped and profit plunged in the face of weakening economies around the globe.
With more employees than ever choosing where they work, the need for PCs fit for purpose has intensified - The traditional workplace model, whereby most employees travel daily to a central office location, has changed, possibly forever. The recent pandemic disrupted normal working patterns, and in its wake many people's expectations and attitudes have been altered for good. The very way we think about work has moved on.
No more dog whistles or empty threats for caustic tweeps, but what does it matter if no one can post? - Twitter has announced a zero-tolerance violent speech policy, but its enforcement might be difficult given today's outage – and the growing list (both in quantity and frequency) of other interruptions.
Job cutting plan expected to ease pressures later this year - Now remains a good time to buy a relatively cheap personal computer – not that pricing promotions are helping out the executive leaders at HP who are doing all they can to rapidly slash operating expenses.
Framework offers refurb kit and parts – for instance, to upgrade a decades-old subnotebook - If you are lucky enough to own an IBM ThinkPad 701C, with its famous "butterfly" keyboard, options are appearing to help you bring it back to life – and some are quite dramatic.
Cupertino not entirely off the hook – yet - The European Commission on Tuesday reduced the scope of its investigation into Apple's allegedly anticompetitive App Store rules for music streaming providers.
Local officials say fire suppression equipment wasn't operational - Apple supplier Foxlink has admitted a fire damaged its plant in Tirupati, India, and that disruptions to production are to be expected as a result.
Reminder: Elon spent $44 billion on this. Forty-four thousand million dollars - Twitter has reportedly axed about another 200 employees, equivalent to roughly 10 per cent of its workforce.
With spares and tools coming from iFixit, no less - HMD Global, which took over the Nokia brand for phones, has launched a smartphone designed to be fixed by the owner, with repair site iFixit providing guides and replacement parts.
Trust us, we're no monopolists - Microsoft President Brad Smith has spent this week in Europe trying to convince EU and UK regulators - and a gaming rival - to support the company's $69 billion bid for Activision Blizzard.
Plan to scan encrypted content to protect children could drive businesses away - Encrypted chat service Signal says it will stop operating in the UK if the British government goes ahead with its Online Safety Bill.
Plus Bluetooth gadget that gives your Android or iPhone the same ability - Ruggedized handset maker Bullitt Group has lifted the lid on its first smartphone with satellite messaging ahead of MWC next week, as well as a Bluetooth dongle from Motorola that provides the same capability for any iOS or Android phone.
Customer with a magnetic personality also had a significantly magnetic wristband - Welcome once more to On-Call, The Register's weekly column in which we retell readers' stories of being asked to fix contraptions that display confounding, confusing, or cockeyed behavior.
And jobs shift offshore, says source - Merative, known until last year as IBM Watson Health, is laying off an estimated 10 percent of its staff, according to a source familiar with the matter.
Closes takeover of One Medical, has your shopping habits and medical data - Amazon's $3.9 billion deal to buy its way into the healthcare world is complete, as it and US healthcare chain One Medical on Wednesday announced the consummation of a merger the pair have been working on since 2022.
Warrantless data harvesting, you say? Feds have their secret reasons and we're OK with that - America's Supreme Court has declined to hear Wikimedia Foundation's challenge of the NSA's "upstream" surveillance program, effectively exempting the agency's data collection from review as a state secret.
If a phone is as mighty as a laptop, why not make it convertible and use it as one - Freedom and privacy-oriented kit vendor Puri.sm has put out a device that turns its Librem 5 smartphone into a laptop.
Paid accounts will be more prominent than your shouty relatives and get – wait for it – a support line - Social network supremo Mark Zuckerberg announced on Sunday that the artist formerly known as Facebook will follow in the footsteps of Twitter by offering a paid service: Meta Verified.
Wow Harold, you could buy, like, 23 billion sliders with that - American burger-slinging giant White Castle is almost certainly regretting its decisions about employee monitoring after the Illinois Supreme Court Friday issued an opinion opening the fast "food" corp up to potentially billions in fines.
Boffins find they can identify VR players just from head and hand movements - Virtual reality presently looks like it will offer virtually no privacy for those looking to hide online.
How about the inside of the windshield instead? - Are you sick of smudges on those unwieldy touchscreens making their way into modern cars these days? General Motors has filed a patent to clear them using UV light, though don't assume it'll actually ship.
World's largest PC maker aims for $150m in cost controls, says never been a worse time to sell smart devices - Lenovo is entering cost cutting mode following the second straight quarterly decline in sales, and plunging profits for the first time since 2020, as the industry faces weakening demand for personal computers.
Send them back? God no, throw them away, says maker - Anker has issued a voluntary recall of its 535 battery packs — also marketed as the PowerCore 20K — one of which is believed to have caused a house fire earlier this month.
From organizing plans to filing a watchdog complaint in just a day - that's gotta be some sort of record - Tesla has reportedly fired employees at its Buffalo, NY, gigafactory just a day after workers announced plans to unionize.
Zhengzhou is lovely this time of year, Bac Giang could be nicer still - Electronics assembler for the stars Foxconn has signed a $62.5 million lease on 45 hectares of land in an industrial park in Vietnam's Bac Giang province, as tech manufacturing operations continue to shift out of China.
So Tesla's gonna open up its proprietary tech? - The Biden-Harris Administration announced rules on Wednesday requiring the American automotive industry to build interoperable electric vehicle chargers that must be manufactured within the country – using US-sourced materials – by 2024.
Doh, a Deere, I fear no Deere - The US Department of Justice on Tuesday asked an Illinois federal court not to dismiss antitrust litigation against agricultural equipment maker Deere & Company for allegedly trying to monopolize the repair of its products.
Ignoring poll results is the new craze for some. At least that's daily entertainment guaranteed now - Sorry, Tesla investors who want him back on the job: Elon Musk said he thinks it's going to take until the end of 2023 to stabilize Twitter to the point where he can appoint someone else as CEO.
European Commission satisfied joint venture won't create competitive problems for locals - In a world saturated with digital ads, four of Europe's mightiest telcos will soon ask citizens if they're willing to volunteer their phone numbers to a startup that promises to deliver targeted ads while also observing European privacy regulations.
Medical payments expected to resume ... soon? - IBM retirees have been forced to pay for some medical expenses out of their own pockets as a result of the IT giant's handling of their healthcare funding.
Plus new developments in the world of the MNT Reform - The Balthazar project is designing an all-Free Hardware laptop based around RISC-V and several existing standards.
Hey, Glaswegians, care to share those negotiating secrets with Apple Store staff in the US? - After months of wrangling, Glaswegian Apple Store employees have signed a deal with their Cupertino parent to officially recognize the first Apple trade union in the UK.
Handy thing, that First Amendment. Now, about the Second … - The US Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that a North Carolina police department policy prohibiting the livestreaming of traffic stops is unconstitutional unless the department can support its claim that broadcasting endangers officers.
Old man yells at cloud, literally - President Joe Biden in his State of the Union Speech on Tuesday evening called for the passage of legislation to stop technology companies from harvesting children's data and to generally limit broader information collection.
Competition and Markets Authority isn't buying promises of equal access to Call of Duty - The UK's competition watchdog is throwing more water on Microsoft's controversial $69 billion bid for Activision Blizzard, saying an acquisition could hit gamers with higher prices and fewer choices.
At least those who live in Phoenix and Atlanta - Google is more likely to push ads for fake abortion clinics toward lower-income women in two major US cities in states that ban the procedure after six weeks, such as in the contested case in Georgia, and 15 weeks for Arizona, according to research by the Tech Transparency Project (TTP) .
Meta said it plans to close deal soon - The Federal Trade Commission will not appeal a court decision approving Meta's acquisition of virtual reality fitness biz Within, paving the way for the deal to finally close.
Creepy developer offers evasive apps that track victims, crack their cloud storage, enable harassment and worse - A New York man who developed several stalkerware apps has been ordered to pay $410,000 in civil fines to settle a court case against him, and must modify the apps to let people know they are being monitored.
Memo tells staff freeze on hiring and travel expenses are no longer enough - Dell is said to be planning to cut thousands of jobs, potentially as much as 5 percent of its entire workforce, in response to the falling global demand for PCs.
Dear government, this thing is written by volunteers. Take it up with them. Also: shouldn't you know this already ? - The Wikimedia Foundation released a statement on Friday confirming that, according to internal traffic reports, Wikipedia and Wikimedia projects are no longer accessible to users in Pakistan.
'Wisdom of the people has prevailed' SpaceX supremo beams - Elon Musk and Tesla have been found not liable by a jury in a securities fraud trial in which the billionaire and his automaker were accused of misleading investors.
Allegations of stifled whistleblowing and disclosure failures end with no admission of guilt, as usual - Rather than face proceedings before the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Activision Blizzard has agreed to pay $35 million to settle charges that it both failed to maintain appropriate misconduct reporting controls over so-called "frat boy culture," and also violated whistleblower protection laws.
As for Macs, CEO admits the PC industry is contracting - Apple has reported its first decline in revenues since 2019 as sales of Macs and iPhones both slowed – the latter in the wake of a shutdown at iPhone City, Foxconn's factory in China, late last year.
Social ad behemoth insists what it does it okay ... and what others do is not - Meta Platforms has sued an Israel-based web scraping firm called Bright Data for scraping data from its Facebook and Instagram websites – even though Meta paid Bright Data to scrape data from other websites.
Facebook, Google, Twilio had a look-see of that data, we're told - GoodRx will cough up $1.5 million to settle claims it shared people's health information with Facebook, Google, and other third parties.
ACLU, EFF, public defenders say that's a hard no - Evidence collected in a Google geofence dragnet warrant that's being used to prosecute a Virginia man accused of robbing a bank is unconstitutional and should be thrown out of court, according to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and eight federal public defenders.
If it walks like a Ponzi, quacks like a Ponzi, guess what it is? - A court-appointed examiner investigating the collapse of cryptocurrency biz Celsius has issued a report of her findings, which are wrapped up in the very first sentence of its executive summary.
Updated Galaxies dive into Apple territory - Samsung Electronics has unveiled its first premium PC, the Galaxy Book 3 Ultra, and positioned it very much as a MacBook alternative for professional creative types who need to work with colossal image files.
Pas le visage, merci - A bill to allow real-time video surveillance of vistors to the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics was approved by France's Senate on Tuesday and now advances to the National Assembly – but crucially bans the use of facial recognition technology.
Genius move: You can't lose money if you don't pay your bills - Elon Musk's strategy of cutting expenses at Twitter by not paying bills is coming home to roost. The company's landlords at its iconic Market Square HQ in San Francisco have sued for two months of back rent – and more.
Cupertino commentators split over foldable fondleslab predictions - When Apple soothsayer Ming-Chi Kuo tweets, the tech world pays attention. This time he's predicting a folding iPad to hit the market next year, which means some accompanying bad news for those hoping to get a new Apple tablet in 2023.
Discounts coming to clear inventory as device makers hit by inflation, interest rates and conflict in Ukraine - Businesses are likely to sweat device assets for longer this year as they spend conservatively in a weakening economy, and this along with shrinking demand from consumers is leaving manufacturers in a tight spot.
Record income for foundry business offers sole bright spot - Samsung Electronics has posted nasty Q4 results and suggested that premium products and a surging foundry business are its way out of a slump.
Turns out even MI5 has to comply with retention rules - An independent tribunal has blasted British spy agency MI5 for "serious failings in compliance" and "unlawful" data collection of British subject dating back to 2014.
Market shifts from volume-driven to value-driven - Worldwide mobile phone shipments continue to decline, but India and China, two of Asia's major economies, are bucking the trend when it comes to premium handsets.
You are the product - A lawsuit claiming Meta ran tests that deliberately degraded performance of its apps in ways that ran down smartphone batteries has been withdrawn after the social network reminded the ex-staffer who brought the case that his contract requires him to take the case to arbitration.
Ah, the 2020s, in which we fund public roads and schools with Dogecoin - A state legislator in New York has introduced a law bill that would make it legal for state agencies to accept payment in cryptocurrency for taxes, fines and other "financial obligations."
Thankfully a veep with a sense of humor pulled the rug out - Welcome once again dear readers to Who, Me? in which we recount the heroic (and sometimes less so) antics of Regizens in the workplace.
MAME adapted to bring your favorite TI and HP graphing machines back to life - The Internet Archive has delivered a nostalgic treat in the form of a collection of 14 vintage emulated calculators, now available to play with online.
What's allowed for Cupertino is verboten for everyone else - Apple has again been sued for promising privacy and allegedly failing to provide it.
DIY store didn't get 'valid consent,' says Canada's regulator - Canada's Home Depot has stopped using Meta's "Offline Conversions" tool, it confirmed to a regulator dealing with a man's complaint after he discovered his visits to the home improvement shop had been recorded.
Join the queue, eh? - AWS, Google and Microsoft are among creditors owed money after the FTX crypto exchange filed for bankruptcy in November.
Elon conflates 'popularity' on unrelated platform with successful year for EV maker - Never mind the headlines. 2022 was Tesla's best year ever, Elon Musk claimed in the automaker's Q4 2022 earnings call this week.
Pinging search services in the US, China, Russia perhaps not ideal for privacy - This just in: smart appliances are still not a bright idea for those who care about privacy.
GMB union demands 45% pay rise as members struggle with cost of living - Brits have never been afraid to strike, and the wave of industrial action hitting various sectors over the crushing cost of living has found its way over to Amazon for the first time in the UK.
I'm feeling yucky - The US Justice Department and eight states sued Alphabet's Google subsidiary on Tuesday claiming the web giant has unfairly monopolized the buying and selling of digital advertising.
Bundeskartellamt already had a bite at FAANG firms, now former Musk co is starting to look appetizing - German antitrust enforcers known for leveling charges against high-profile tech companies have a new target for accusations of dominant market position abuse: PayPal.
Take that, China - India is responsible for five to seven percent of Apple's manufacturing, and the iPhone maker aims to grow that number to 25 percent, according to India's minister of commerce and industry, Piyush Goyal.
Modest, low-volume chips will pay off over time, apparently - Chinese supply chain analyst outfit Jiwei has suggested local smartphone makers are having limited success with their attempts to create homegrown silicon.
Just so, so much enthusiasm for Second Life 2.0 right now - Microsoft in March will shut down its AltspaceVR outfit as it shifts its virtual reality efforts from catering to ordinary folks to businesses.
CEO Ek admits he never stopped to consider whether pandemic boom was temporary - Stop us if you've heard this one before: the CEO at a well-known technology company writes a letter to staff, laying off hundreds. Said CEO accepts responsibility for assuming a pandemic boom year would mean higher sustained growth rates, but it didn't, so sacrifices must be made.
These are the litigation specialists hired to get Musk to acquire the platform - Global consultancy Charles River Associates (CRA) has joined the queue of companies claiming Twitter walked away without paying its tab.
26 megabytes of history are yours for the downloading - Apple has given its blessing to the release of source code for its first mouse-powered marvel – the Lisa – to mark its 40th birthday.
Some potential good news for those unhappy with pandemic-era lead times, prices - After surging 28 percent in 2022, foundry revenues are set to plunge over the next 12 months as wafer demand slows, inventory consumption slumps, and geopolitical conflict drives chip designers out of China, according to Trendforce.
RWAP Software owner Rich Mellor talks ZX81 sound cards and linking USB printers to parallel ports - RWAP Software has been offering parts and upgrades for Sinclair Research computers since the mid-1980s. Owner Rich Mellor talked to El Reg about what got him into the business, what's kept him interested, as well as his new product – which is a very different beast.
Reed Hastings steps down as joint boss to become board chair - The co-founder of vid-streamer Netflix, Reed Hastings, has announced he will step down as co-CEO.
Google says don't worry, EFF warns of 'potentially horrific outcome' - At least nine online pharmacies that sell abortion pills share information with Google and other third parties, such as search history and geolocation, that can be used to identify the websites' users, according to a ProPublica probe.
Investors use up all their continues, game over - A California judge has tossed out a lawsuit filed by Activision Blizzard shareholders against the company's leadership accusing them of breaching fiduciary duties by allowing a hostile environment to develop that top brass tried to hide from the public.
That'll definitely teach them to look out for their workers - Amazon has been hit with a trio of citations from US safety inspectors who say their investigations found "serious violations" of the Occupational Safety and Health Act at warehouses in New York, Illinois and Florida.
More stock is NOT wanted as phone shipments plunge to lowest point in decade, Apple floats to top - Against a backdrop of rising inflation and a less than certain economy in various parts of the world, the volume of global phones shipments is at the lowest rate in a decade.
Private services smeared for 'disorderly expansion and data security problems' - China's government has announced it's built its own rideshare and transport-as-a-service platform.
Meanwhile SBF proclaims he's both innocent and solvent - Liquidators at bankrupt crypto exchange FTX say they've thus far located $5.5 billion in assets, and confirmed that $415 million stolen in a November hack is still missing.
Damages and security improvements? Or maybe settle for a neon bird light - A Twitter user has sued the troubled social media platform over an alleged data leak that exposed more than 200 million account users' information.
Warrantless surveillance branded illegal, said to unfairly target the poor, immigrants, minorities - US government investigators have been demanding and receiving millions of money-transfer records from Western Union and similar outfits. Now US Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) wants an investigation into this bulk financial surveillance.
Two years in the clink proposed for not thinking of the children - Leaders of social media companies could face up to two years in jail if they repeatedly fail to protect children from harmful content online, under the latest amendments apparently added to the UK's Online Safety Bill.
Contractual mess has players wondering if preserving progress in Warcraft, Overwatch, and StarCraft will be possible - Gaming giant Blizzard is about to stop operating some of its games in China, leaving players of multiplayer affairs like World of Warcraft fearing for the future of characters in which they have invested many hours of their lives, often in the company of friends they don't "see" in other "places".
W3C's techies have a few choice words for the Chocolate Factory - Google's plan to reinvent ad targeting for the postponed post-cookie era has again been complicated by privacy concerns.
Rumored product looks like part of a larger effort to compete with Cupertino's Find My network - Google leaks point to the Android maker working on an Apple AirTags competitor, news of which could indicate a broader effort to compete with Apple's Find My network.
Like crude oil and water, cowboys and EVs don't mix - No, Wyoming lawmakers didn't get their bill backwards. A group of them led by Republican state senator Jim Anderson actually introduced a resolution last week to ban the sale of electric vehicles in the Cowboy State by 2035.
Though a household appliance should have a useful lifetime of 5-10 years, vendor support tends to be shorter... much shorter - Buyers of high-end smart devices could find their shiny appliance loses some of its capabilities or becomes a security risk after a few short years when manufacturers fail to provide software updates, says Which?
Chinese developers are cashing in as the region buys in to TikTok and games - Asian nations have been revealed as the primary drivers of the mobile ecosystem, according to data.ai – a mobile analytics firm previously known as App Annie – in its 2023 State of Mobile report.
Something something shareholders unhappy with the heft of CEO's package - Apple CEO Tim Cook's 2023 compensation package has been slashed by 40 percent, Apple said, after the iBoss okayed the move in response to shareholder criticism of executive pay.
Oh, great – another source of carbon fumes we forgot to factor in - If widely adopted, self-driving cars are going to introduce another source of unaccounted-for carbon emissions that could surpass those of the world's current complement of datacenters: The computer brains that power them.
Draft paper calls out businesses for vagueness - Around half of environmental claims made about advertised products are "vague, misleading or unfounded information about products' environmental characteristics," says research from the European Commission.
Nausea and headaches do not a fit fighting force make, so back to the lab for version 1.2 - Congress is putting its foot down on funding the US Army's experiments with Microsoft HoloLens headsets, eliminating program funding in fiscal year 2023 for all but research into newer, less nauseating hardware.
CEO 'disappointed' by prelim top and bottom lines for latest full quarter - With PC makers cutting prices to spur demand and reduce inventory holdings in the channel, peripherals maker Logitech is facing its own share of commercial problems.
And that’s why aviation authorities don’t allow power banks in checked luggage - A passenger's USB power bank caught fire as a plane taxied towards the runway on a flight from Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport to Singapore's Changi Airport on Tuesday, causing the airplane to return to its gate.
Vendors lower prices to stimulate demand but inflation, fears of recession trump discounts - Global PC shipments – desktops, notebooks and workstations – saw out 2022 with something of a whimper as sales volumes crashed to levels last seen before the pandemic.
Who needs shiny new blowers when there bills to pay and kids to feed? Answer: fewer and fewer folk - More and more cash-strapped people are opting to buy second hand and refurbished handsets in these tougher economic times with sales of used and refurbished devices estimated to have passed 282 million in 2022.
Raspberry Pi Camera Module 3 adds autofocus and wider field of view - The Raspberry Pi has new cameras to capture images, attention, cash... and maybe your affection and/or admiration.
Code hosting service fed up with excessive bandwidth consumption - Sourcehut, a code hosting service similar to GitHub, GitLab, Gitea, and the like, plans to start blocking the Go Module Mirror, a proxy that fetches and caches code from git servers, because it has been using up too much network bandwidth.
Social media as public nuisance? Seattle may be on to something - Another lawsuit accuses Meta, Alphabet and other tech giants of harming kids in the interest of boosting profits. But this one takes it a step further and alleges that by contributing to the "youth mental health crisis," the companies' social media platforms are exacerbating US schools' counselors and clinics, and directly affecting their ability to educate kids.
Models 3 and Y are up to 24% cheaper than last year, and buyers said to want compensation - Tesla owners in China took to the streets in protest this weekend over another round of price cuts they claim means they overpaid for their model Y and 3 vehicles.
Is that a Google Home in your toilet? - It wouldn't be CES without the introduction of gadgets that no one asked for.
Holy cow! Memorandum of Understanding to give farmers access to 'diagnostic tools' and documentation - In what looks like a victory for farmers in the United States, the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) has struck a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with equipment vendor John Deere regarding the repairability of its machines.
Citation needed? - There may be little to agree on in these fractured, fractious times, but nobody can deny the fact of progress. We see it in tech up close and personal: news keeps coming thick and fast from medicine, material science, energy, cosmology, palaeontology, environmental sciences, you name it. The speed of change is just breathtaking.
PLUS Tesla China price cuts spark protests; Japan boosts cyber-defences; Google can’t overturn Indian fine - Singapore's tech community is in mourning – along with many around the world – after the sudden passing of Creative Technology co-founder and CEO Sim Wong Hoo. The brand was behind the popular "Sound Blaster" range of PC sound cards and a significant force in the digital media revolution.
Technology has the potential to make life better. This isn't it. - As the 2023 Consumer Electronics Show winds down, it's once again time for the Worst in Show Awards, an enumeration of ill-conceived tech products as determined by various technology advocates.
In trouble somewhere remote with patchy cell coverage but able to see the sky? You can text for help - Satellite messaging via mobile phone appears to be the in-thing at this year's CES show in Las Vegas, with the launch of two services from comms chipmaker Qualcomm and UK-based smartphone company Bullitt Group.
Dangerous without a data protection law in place, says rights org - An announcement from Indian government-owned telecom company, RailTel, detailing efforts to monetize existing free railway Wi-Fi in partnership with a private company has drawn criticism that it will lead to data collection, breaches, unwanted ads and more.
Not all of these concepts will end in tires - If you want more proof that electric vehicles are taking over, just look to CES 2023, which had been overrun with EV concepts cars on the floor and teased vehicles to be revealed.
Gorilla Glass-plated Android gadget for the biz crowd but it won't be cheap... - Lenovo has unveiled the ThinkPhone, an Android smartphone the company is positioning as a business device alongside its ThinkPad laptops, with a number of features designed to make the two devices work better together.
Country boss now second in command, general manager vows to take 'Made in China' overseas... like everything else? - While Tesla continues to take some knocks in stock price and other matters, its China-based factories and execs are poised to spread their influence globally within the company.
Last one out turn off the lights - A pair of leadership departures at Twitter this week have left the company with few, if any, remaining executives that predate Elon Musk's acquisition of the platform.
iBiz's MagSafe charging tech forms the foundation of the Qi2 movement - The Wireless Power Consortium (WPC) on Tuesday announced a new wireless charging standard called Qi2, claiming that the spec will "unify the industry under one global standard."
Consumers around the world want to go electric, says Deloitte, but sticker shock is keeping them at bay - US car shoppers are more interested in electric vehicles than ever before, but the majority agree that there's one major thing holding them back: the sticker price.
$32 billion cryptocurrency failure on the dock - Former CEO of bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried, pleaded not guilty to eight criminal charges on Tuesday and is expected to stand trial on 2 October.
We wish you a very merry chemo and a happy new year - Askern Medical Practice, a general practitioner surgery based in Doncaster, UK, managed to muddle its Christmas holiday message to patients by texting them they'd been diagnosed with "aggressive lung cancer with metastases."
How many more straws can you fit on an electric car company's back? - Tesla has finished 2022 with a dismal fourth quarter that saw it fail to meet analyst vehicle delivery predictions, fall short of its 50 percent growth objective and watch its stock rappel downward, shaving billions from the electric car maker's market value.
Using a gigahertz-class computer to get an 36MHz computer onto the internet – or even just printing - Code whizz and tinkerer Kian Ryan's ingenious "Sidecar" is a self-contained, battery-powered Wi-Fi-to-RS232 bridge that enables his elderly Psion 5MX PDA to access a little bit of the modern internet.
A pose by any other name would pay as sweet - Information technology has a long tradition of making up new job titles to emphasize how futuristic we all are. Who can forget IBM's Worldwide Head Of Objects?
The answers aren't much fun either - Would you like to use Edge as your default browser?
Hopefully it comes with a 'new' competitive price, too - Nvidia this week quietly, and perhaps unintentionally, revealed the previously canceled RTX 4080 12GB would be reborn as the RTX 4070 TI.
We can already imagine Louis R's reaction - New York Governor Kathy Hochul (D) has approved a comprehensive right-to-repair law for tech products – the first of its kind for a US state – though not before some changes were made to the fine print.
We'll have what Europe's having - Smartphones and other mobile devices sold in India must have a USB-C charging port as standard by March 2025.
Xbox maker responds to US regulator's lawsuit to block the acquisition - Microsoft has put forward its argument against the US trade regulator's attempt to block its massive purchase of games dev Activision Blizzard from going through, claiming the deal would be good for consumers.
But will be bigger than gaming consoles, so maybe this metaverse thing has legs - Analyst firm IDC has crunched the numbers for sales of augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) headsets and found they’re not going to be a big seller any time soon – at least compared to conventional computing devices.
Redmond accused of monopolising a market! How shocking - First the FTC threw a legal wrench in the works, and now a group of gamers has filed a class action lawsuit in California to stop Microsoft from purchasing Activision Blizzard.
Updates for multiple devices including PinePhone Pro and keyboard incoming - Pine64's last update of 2022 brings word of a new version of its PineTab FOSS-driven tablet after chip shortages effectively killed the first generation.
The team needs a year to recover and figure out how not to stress supply chains before planning an upgrade - If you’re hoping a new Raspberry Pi will pear in 2023, we have bad news: Rasbposs Eben Upton says work on a Raspberry Pi 5 won’t start until the second half of the year, meaning delivery is a way off yet.
Will stay on as boss of servers and software – the fun bits, in other words - Elon Musk has made good on his promise to abide by the results of a Twitter poll that asked whether he should quit as CEO of the microblogging service – and delivered a resounding “YES” vote.
Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor lack of gas will stay these NGDVs from carbon-free completion of their appointed rounds - The United States Postal Service announced today that "at least" three quarters of its planned fleet of next generation delivery vehicles (NGDVs) would be electric, marking a sharp departure from fossil fuel-heavy fleet plans announced in 2021.
Bold move, Cotton. Let's see how that plays out for them - Amazon has avoided being charged with breaking EU law and a fine of up to $50 billion by making several commitments to the European Commission today, one of which was to allow Prime sellers to "freely choose any carrier" for their logistics and delivery services.
Alleged 'mastermind' who proposed 'take the money and run' exit strategy remains a fugitive - "What is OneCoin?" asks the narrator of a YouTube video. "Millions of people around the world are mining OneCoin today. The reason? It's a platform for innovation that changes the financial industry."
Picture your avatar wearing a logo-emblazoned shirt driving past a billboard touting a product - Microsoft appears to be expanding its push to place ads throughout different products to online games.
Someone thought of the children, and the dark patterns - The owner of Fortnite is paying the FTC an Epic amount of cash after a pair of unanimous 4-0 decisions found it guilty of violating children's privacy and tricking customers into making unwanted purchases.
Believes Facebook Marketplace broke EU rules by 'distorting competition' for online ads - The European Commission has a problem with Meta tying its online classified ads service, Marketplace, to the Facebook social network, and is concerned it is "imposing unfair trading conditions on Facebook Marketplace's competitors for its own benefit."
One version to bind them all, and in the darkness rock them - If you're not a musician, you may never think of MIDI, the Musical Instrument Digital Interface standard that links up keyboards and other electronic noise boxes. Firefox has, adding the super-niche Web MIDI API in its latest version. That's one of those "uh, OK" decisions which gets weirder the longer you look at it – but then, MIDI is utterly unlike other tech standards.
The ayes have it: You said 'YES' - Elon Musk may be about to fire himself as CEO of Twitter.
Is Zuck's org doomed, or is this a case of a techie struggling with management? - Legendary developer John Carmack has quit his role as a consultant to Meta, where he worked as an executive consultant on its Oculus virtual reality hardware.
Cloud souk reportedly ready to play a little more fairly with its own merchants - Amazon will reportedly make changes to its business practices to resolve two European antitrust investigations next week.
You're holding your staff meetings the wrong way - Apple has been accused of creating its own labor organization to prevent workers from forming an employee-run union, according to a complaint filed on Friday.
Surely it must realize regulators aren't going to go for this? - With its telecoms and consumer electronics businesses prevented from addressing rich overseas markets, Huawei has set itself on the road to a new industry: electric cars.
Free speech? Or 'roving internet censors' - An internet trade association whose members include Amazon, Google, Meta, TikTok and Twitter has sued the state of California to block a recently signed law that aims to protect kids online by requiring websites to verify the ages of all users.
Frankly my dear, I do give a DAAML - A bipartisan bill introduced in the US Senate could finally bring the cryptocurrency industry to heel by, among other things, extending existing banking regulations to cover digital currencies and designating cryptocash sellers as money service businesses.
Memory is the key to enabling lightweight, power efficient, high-performance portability - Think about your wishes as an end user of smartphones and laptops for a moment: in an increasingly remote world, what are the benefits and drawbacks of both types of device? Would you ever believe it is possible to bring the best of both worlds - (low power, long battery in smartphones) and high-performance capabilities and productivity tools (laptops) - to each?
'Technical issues and proliferation of hateful content' blamed - More than 32 million Twitter users are forecast to ditch the social media platform within the next two years as they become "frustrated" by technical matters and the rise in post they deem offensive.
Oh Lord, won't you buy me a ... oh - Electric car maker Rivian just can't seem to catch a break - it has posted staggering losses this year, has had to recall nearly every vehicle it sold in October, and now it's announcing a hold on its joint electric van plant with Mercedes-Benz.
Ah c'mon, we've gotta be better than this - Airbnb guests perceived to be Black by hosts are slightly less successful at booking properties than White guests, according to a report from Airbnb itself.
Billions in people's private funds siphoned off to bankroll hedge fund, watchdogs say - Police in The Bahamas on Monday nabbed Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), former CEO of failed cryptocurrency exchange FTX and crypto hedge fund Alameda Research, at the request of the US government, based on charges filed by multiple federal agencies.
Plus: Elon Musk is now a number 2 - Twitter has taken a match to its Trust and Safety Council, the group of 100 civil rights organizations formed in 2016 to tackle issues like hate speech, child exploitation and suicide on the platform.
Are they booing me, Smithers? No, Mr SpaceX, they're saying boo, boo-ster, booster! - In a bizarre move Elon Musk took to the stage with Dave Chappelle at a comedy gig in San Francisco this weekend to a chorus of boos, and little in the way of repartee.
100,000 units being sent to resellers as thanks for consumer patience, says CEO Eben Upton - Raspberry Pi enthusiasts, rejoice: around 100,000 RPi Zero W, 3A+, and 2GB/4GB RPi 4s are being distributed to resellers for holiday season consumer sales.
If he offers you a piece of the Chocolate Pi, be suspicious - A former technical surveillance officer at the UK's Eastern Region Special Operations Unit (ERSOU) – a team charged with tackling serious organized crime and terrorism across seven local police forces – has joined the Raspberry Pi Foundation and expressed his professional admiration for the organization's single board computers when pressed into service on police business.
Watchdog answers its call of duty, fears serial monopoly abuser will strike again - The Federal Trade Commission filed a lawsuit on Thursday seeking to block Microsoft's $69 billion acquisition of video game studio Activision Blizzard, claiming the merger would suppress competition.
Single market's worth $95.12 billion to Apple, so it's not like it had a choice - OEMs, start your assembly lines as the European Commission (EC) has published its USB-C rules, and an official date for enforcement has been set for December 28, 2024.
Too bad the RAM is baked on - Packing a 35W CPU onto a board barely larger than a Raspberry Pi might sound like a bad idea, but that's not stopping Asus' Aaeon product division.
It does most things well, some things right, and a few things bafflingly badly - HP's Elitebook 1040 x360 g9 is an anonymously solid laptop that packs one of Intel's Alder Lake CPUs – but doesn't feel special as a result.
Schrems strikes again - European privacy regulators have determined that Meta's use of personalized advertising in Facebook, Instagram, and WhatApp violates data protection laws.
But we already gave them back $62m, web bazaar shrugs - Amazon again stands accused of stealing delivery drivers' tips, and using the money to cut into workers' pay, this time in a lawsuit filed by Washington DC's Attorney General Karl Racine on Wednesday.
There's an iCatch or two: Spare parts expensive, available for few devices - People in Europe and the UK can buy spare parts on Apple's Self Service Repair Store to fix their own iPhones and laptops, the tech goliath announced on Tuesday.
Pair say they were harassed and followed using trackers described in the media as 'stalker-proof' - Apple is being sued on behalf of two women who allege that the company's AirTag tracking devices violated their privacy by allowing them to be stalked.
Hey Siri, is it illegal to pressure employees until they abandon organizing votes? - US labor law enforcers say they've found merit to allegations that Apple's response to unionization attempts in Atlanta violated the National Labor Relations Act.
Shiny silicon plus Rusty drivers will eventually equal openly saucy happiness - Arm-powered laptops and desktops are appearing on the market, but external appearances are deceptive. These are very different from familiar x86-based PCs, as the accounts of those experimenting with them reveal.
Technically and leadership-wise what site needs is stability - It's a toss-up between Elon Musk's management misadventures and Twitter's technical troubles as to which will cause the most damage.
Now that's what we call Intel Inside - If you think you can fool customs officials into believing you are pregnant and not, in fact, smuggling hundreds of Intel processors and iPhones in a prosthetic strapped to your belly, think again.
680x0: the CPU architecture that just will not die - A patch to add a new display driver for Linux is being reviewed. What's unusual is that it's for a machine released 30 years ago.
A watch that flips open to reveal tiny earbuds: what could possibly go wrong? - Have you ever left the house with your smartwatch on, but forgotten your earbuds?
Not a good look for Meta's content moderation team - Just before the US midterm elections last month, researchers from non-profit Global Witness and New York University submitted ads containing death threats against election workers to Meta's Facebook, Google's YouTube, and TikTok.
If at first you don't succeed try again. Then fail again. - Video game maker Activision-Blizzard's attempts to stop a second group of quality assurance employees for unionizing has been slapped down by the National Labor Relations Board, clearing the way for an organizing vote at the company's Albany, New York offices.
Your tax dollars at work - US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) "erroneously" posted names and other personal information belonging to more than 6,252 individuals seeking asylum in the US on its website earlier this week.
Protests in Zhangzhou may equate to 15-20 million fewer Pro models in Q4, says analyst Ming-Chi Kuo - The Chinese city of Zhangzhou - home to Foxconn's largest iPhone factory - has lifted COVID-19 restrictions, but it could still be too late to help Apple bounce back from a serious holiday shortage of iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max devices.
Ex-moderation lead says he does not feel the platform is 'safe' under Musk - Twitter under Elon Musk won't be taking down COVID-19 misinformation anymore, according to quietly updated policy pages.
Governments directly policing online content will put free speech at risk - The UK government has dropped the requirement forcing social media companies to remove "legal but harmful" content from its Online Safety Bill, a week before the proposal is set to return to Parliament.
The kids aren't alright - US legislation that aims to protect kids' online safety and data privacy will have "damaging unintended consequences for young people," according to more than 90 privacy and civil rights groups.
Millions of people who bought apps since 2016 eligible for payout - A California judge has cleared the way for a potentially massive class-action lawsuit against Google, which stands accused - again - of anticompetitive practices surrounding its Play store.
CEO claims platform threatened with expulsion from App Store, asks if device maker hates free speech - Apple is the new target of billionaire Elon Musk's ire after the Twitter owner and CEO outlined his frustrations with the company in a series of tweets about it stopping advertising on the platform and more.
Elon Musk meanwhile muses whether Apple 'hate[s] free speech in America' because the company mostly stopped advertising on Twitter - Twitter over the weekend was flooded with spam and suggestive ads in what appears to be an attempt to help the Chinese government hide news about rioters protesting coronavirus restrictions in China.
Crypto lending biz wants its money back "as promptly as practicable" - Crypto lending firm Block Fi declared bankruptcy on Monday, citing the collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX Trading Ltd. and affiliates two weeks ago.
Irish eyes aren't smiling - Ireland's data privacy agency today said it fined Meta €265 million ($275 million) for failing to protect users' data after millions of Facebook users' phone numbers and other private info was given away online for free.
Meanwhile reports say more ad buyers are staying away - Call it blind optimism, deployment of a reality distortion field or pure conviction that Twitter will ultimately flourish, but Elon Musk reckons his social media platform will have 1 billion monthly users within 18 months.
Inkjet is the future, claims Japanese printer maker - Japanese electronics and printer maker Epson announced this month that it will end the sale and distribution of laser printer hardware by 2026, citing sustainability issues.
'Geopolitical environment' leads to spin-out of cloud, self-driving and other tech - Russia's most prominent tech company, Yandex, has announced steps to move some of its intellectual property out of Putin country and dispose of the rest to local interests.
Goggles unhooked from Facebook login, but officials still watching for antitrust abuse - Germany's Federal Cartel Office is claiming a win after Meta unhooked the VR glasses formerly known as Oculus from a Facebook login.
Plenty of top tech CEOs graduated from the country's unis, which are seen as a ticket to prosperity - Amazon has quit India's market for online educational services.
Spoiler alert: court proceedings suggest crypto exchange was a mess and investors will be out of pocket - The collapse of crypto exchange FTX has already been turned into a television drama.
Suddenly discovers that game-adjacent tech has its uses – and it's a huge export industry - China has declared victory over the scourge of teenage video game addiction.
Asimov would like a word - Next week, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors is expected to vote on a policy proposal that will allow the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) to deploy robots authorized to kill people.
Contractor apologizes for 'technical error occurred during the onboarding process' - Protests have erupted at Foxconn, the largest contract supplier for Apple's iPhone, as workers voice complaints over pay and working conditions following new draconian COVID-19 measures.
After a mysterious pause in crackdowns, it looks like the Beijing everyone knows is back - China's antitrust watchdog, the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR), has proposed a revision of the nation's competition law that targets tech firms.
Alexa, how does Amazon decide when the grand plan for conversational commerce has failed? - Black Friday is nearly upon us, but the annual online price-drop frenzy seems to be losing its shine. Numerous reports highlight that discounting may not be all it seems, and buyers would be best to shop around.
An Apple a day keeps the doctor away, but too many might be a burden on the planet. - Apple's Mac hardware keeps getting thinner and lighter, and its iPads keep becoming more and more capable. I'm hardly the first to observe that the two products are getting closer together - but if Apple's environmental claims mean anything the products are now so close it's irresponsible they don't overlap.
‘Portfolio optimization’ plan aims to cull some PCs, sell more pricey subscriptions - HP Inc. has announced it will lay off between 4,000 and 6,000 staff as part of a cost-cutting drive aimed at adding $1.4 billion to its bottom line in coming years.
ACLU agrees that the only way to protect consumers is to control what can be collected - Attorneys General from 33 US states are urging the Federal Trade Commission to take a practical step toward reining in commercial surveillance of consumers and minimize the data companies are authorized to collect.
But keen to avoid any mf bespoke software on the mf planes (and other hardware) - The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has opened a commercial information technology contract to potential bidders including hardware and perpetual license software worth up to $10 billion.
'This store of confidential data is a national treasure that must never be compromised or treated carelessly' - As the UK government plans to launch the procurement for a national patient data store, the legal guardian of NHS data has issued a coded warning concerning trust and transparency in health data usage.
Yet another cautionary tale of diving into crypto investment opps - Two Estonian men were arrested yesterday for their alleged roles in running a series of cryptocurrency and money laundering scams that bilked $575 million from "hundreds of thousands of victims" while the suspects used their ill-gotten gains to buy real estate and luxury cars.
This is despite a wealth of evidence showing the value of having two in the cockpit - Regulators are pushing the UN's International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) to examine ways of making single pilot operations the eventual norm in commercial flights.
Even in Club Fed, that's a long time - A federal judge on Friday sentenced former Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes to 11.25 years in prison and three years of supervised release for defrauding investors in the failed blood testing company.
ACLU argues for the Fourth - The American Civil Liberties Union on Friday asked the US Supreme Court to consider whether surveillance cameras placed on utility poles by police without a warrant should be allowed to watch people in their homes.
The point? To demonstrate the safety of lithium-ion power packs when handled properly - If you've ever wondered how and why lithium-ion batteries in devices like smartphones and laptops combust, iFixit is here with an explosive video and some accompanying wisdom on safe battery-handling.
Move for consumer welfare and preventable e-waste as nation seeks to ramp up electronics production - India is on a path to require USB-C charging ports in almost all smart devices following actions taken by an inter-ministerial task force.
Products tend to work best once removed from their packaging - History, it is said, is told by the victors. Which is why The Register each week presents On-Call – tales of readers triumphing when delivering tech support to the clueless, unreasonable or just plain ignorant.
Corporate funds bought employee homes, no accounting department, uncertainty about who's an employee, and other baffling behavior - John Ray III, CEO of FTX Trading Ltd, who succeeded disgraced founder Sam Bankman-Fried following the collapse of the once notionally valued $32 billion cryptocurrency exchange, told a Delaware bankruptcy court on Thursday that the company is a disaster unlike anything he has ever seen.
Comment comes as CEO testifies in suit questioning $65b Tesla pay - Elon Musk, disruptor extraordinaire of the social media platform he bought for $44 billion isn't planning to run Twitter permanently on a full-time basis and says a CEO will be hired.
Ming-Chi Kuo is prognosticating again - Ming-Chi Kuo, the analyst with the uncanny ability to predict all things Apple, has said that while the iPhone 15 will ditch its Lightning ports for USB-C next year, only the two high-end models, the Pro and Pro Max, will support higher wired transfer speeds.
Divisive CEO becomes a prisoner of his own device - Following a public engineering spat and multiple firings, Twitter CEO Elon Musk has issued an ultimatum to his employees: get hardcore or get out of my way.
You can go (nearly) that fast too, if you have a spare €2 million lying around - Croatian electric car maker Rimac says it has set a new EV speed record, and it's nothing to balk at. The Nevera, its second production vehicle, was just clocked in Germany going a blistering 412 kilometers per hour (258mph).
Softbank's chip designer warns US giant may lose all of its CPU licenses at this rate - Arm sure picked its moment to fire a return salvo in its legal battle with Qualcomm: right in the middle of the latter's latest Snapdragon processor launch.
Wi-Fi 7, TSMC 4nm, faster GPU, INT4 and AI everywhere – and a rocky relationship with its CPU designer - Qualcomm today finds itself in the peculiar position of announcing its latest flagship mobile processor that relies heavily on technology from an outfit suing the pants off it.
Spoiler: it may hinge on California's voting block - America's midterm elections didn't result in the widely predicted Republican red wave, but the results show there will be interesting times ahead for American privacy.
Well, which one is it, then? - Between trying to convince advertisers to keep faith in Twitter and firing engineers for public insubordination, Elon Musk yesterday admitted that one of his other businesses, SpaceX, had bought an ad campaign through the social media website.
Naming no names, but study finds trustworthy techs are hard to find - Computer scientists affiliated with Canada's University of Guelph have found that electronics repair services lack effective privacy protocols and that technicians often snoop on customers' data.
US states threw privacy challenge at web giant - Google will pay $391.5 million to settle a location tracking lawsuit brought against it by 40 US states that claimed the big data behemoth continued surveilling consumers' movements even after these users explicitly told the Chocolate Factory to stop tracking them.
Bankruptcy filing for $32 billion firm follows inability to give customers their money - On Friday, cryptocurrency exchange FTX Trading Ltd. and 134 affiliated firms filed for bankruptcy protection, and CEO Sam Bankman-Fried resigned as CEO, turning over control to John Ray III, who also oversaw the liquidation of Enron Corp.
Alexa, do I have a job? Staff in corporate and technology positions in line of fire - Online megacorp Amazon is the latest tech giant to be linked with sweeping layoffs following reports that up to 10,000 redundancy notices will start to be distributed to employees from this week.
We must immunize the Mastodon - There is a euphemism in rocketry often heard at SpaceX – Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly. A catastrophic explosion, in other words. Until now, it was not a phrase that applies to social media.
Tune in to hear how it works on Spotify, or hook up with choice on Bumble - Google’s resistance to allowing third-party payment systems to touch its Play digital store appear to be ebbing away, with the search and ads giant last week announcing it has commenced tests of payment choice in the USA.
Lost among the Twitter chaos? We'll try to sort it out for you, so far - You could say Twitter, now in its second week of Elon Musk's reign, has had an interesting week. That would be an understatement.
Alleged genius behind electric car spots one thing that might save company from the abyss: ending WFH - Twitter CEO Elon Musk has told employees of the risk of short-term bankruptcy as corporations — hence potential advertisers — get trashed by spoof accounts set up under the new blue checkmark scheme he introduced.
Taps mic: Elon? Elon are you there? Care to comment? - Electric carmaker Rivian is reporting more trouble – this time it's the loss of $1.7 billion in Q3 alone, although the biz said it has enough cash on hand for three more years of business.
Can't do anything about their musical taste though - Japanese telecommunications megalith NTT released details on Wednesday of ambitious headphone tech that eliminates pesky sound leakage – even on open-ear earphones.
Today's messes: a possible crypto venture; blue tick blackflips; advertiser assurances; and a promise to try dumb things - The Twitter "Official" label that showed up on the platform yesterday as a way to fix an arguably unbroken verification system has apparently disappeared from many accounts in less than 24 hours.
Meanwhile, more advertisers pause spending on loss-making social media platform and user base said to be declining - What's the latest in the life of the world’s richest man? Elon Musk has offloaded almost $4 billion in Tesla stock after buying Twitter, the social media platform that is losing advertisers, money and maybe users.
Zuck admits biz recruited too hard during pandemic and decline in advertising forced his hand - Meta is making more than of 11,000 employees redundant following the dramatic decline in profits and the subsequent share price dive at the end of last month.
The world may never be free of unsmashable ads - LG Display has shown off a thin, lightweight, stretchable and twistable micro-LED screen – an innovation South Korea's Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) hopes will boost the nation's electronics industry.
Stay warm this winter by fragging some baddies - Intel wants to put a small form factor space heater — err PC — on your desk with the launch of its 13th-Gen NUC Extreme platform, codenamed Raptor Canyon.
Apparently, you can still get laptops with good keyboard feel - Tuxedo Computers offers an unusual machine: a Linux-based laptop with, of all things, a mechanical keyboard.
Other than that, results are some of the least bad news about hardware sales we've read in weeks - Electronics manufacturing giant Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd – better known as Foxconn – has reported strong growth in plenty of product categories but warned its Chinese operations may drag it down during Q4.
Meanwhile, India workers in reported 90% purge - In a sign that laying off half the company may not have been the best idea, "dozens" of Twitter employees given notice on Friday were reportedly asked to return over the weekend.
Just in time for the holidays, a bunch of firing talk to worry Facebook crew - More Silicon Valley layoff rumors are swirling and this time it's Meta that might be planning the first broad reduction in the company's history.
Buyers told of longer wait times for shiny new phones that don't do a lot more than last year’s model - Apple has warned that a COVID outbreak in Zhengzhou, China, has impacted production of the iPhone 14 and will mean customers wait longer than anticipated to get their hands on the device.
Ericsson's VoIP biz used 'a panoply of hurdles' to keep customers on the hook - Vonage has agreed to cough up $100 million to customers for making it nearly impossible to cancel their internet phone service, according to a proposed court order.
Musk-owned companies have now faced 3 WARN Act lawsuits alleging the same thing - The great Twitter cull of '22 is expected to begin today, but a group of tweeps have preempted the event by filing a class action lawsuit against Twitter for violating the WARN Act.
Watchdog claims add-ons to computer purchases appeared to be discounted but did not reflect the standalone RRP - Dell's Australian business is in trouble with the country's consumer watchdog for allegedly misleading buyers about the price of displays purchased as an add-on with its computers.
A weighty lens, placed off-centre on a lightweight smartphone – what could possibly go wrong? - Chinese smartphone darling has shown off a phone with a full camera lens bolted to its back – which looks very dorky, but thankfully is only a concept device.
Chiplet-based RNDA 3 GPU fans have been waiting for - AMD has come out swinging at Nvidia with new flagship Radeon graphics cards that are cheaper than its rival's fresh GeForce RTX products.
For now, have a hiring freeze to preserve fat profits - Qualcomm CEO and president Cristiano Amon has tipped 2024 as the year in which PCs using his company’s Snapdragon silicon make a mark.
Want a low-cost machine? Agree to be bombarded and the Windows giant could have a solution for you - In a world where global sales of PCs are declining and more work is shifting to the cloud, what can the maker of the world's ubiquitous operating system do to keep money coming in?
Want a low-cost machine? Agree to be bombarded and the Windows giant could have a solution for you - In a world where global sales of PCs are declining and more work is shifting to the cloud, what can the maker of the world's ubiquitous operating system do to keep money coming in?
Let's just go get a pint and wait for it to blow over - As Elon Musk gets a rapid crash course in running and moderating a social network used by millions of angry people, major advertisers are reportedly advising their clients to pause ads on the tycoon's Twitter platform until brand safety can be assured.
Let's just go get a pint and wait for it to blow over - As Elon Musk gets a rapid crash course in running and moderating a social network used by millions of angry people, major advertisers are reportedly advising their clients to pause ads on the tycoon's Twitter platform until brand safety can be assured.
Device sales hit the floor as vendors look to Windows PCs - Huawei was the only major tablet maker to grow shipments in Q3 on the back of demand in China and Russia as the rest of the top five manufacturers reported shrinking sales to retailers and distributors.
Device sales hit the floor as vendors look to Windows PCs - Huawei was the only major tablet maker to grow shipments in Q3 on the back of demand in China and Russia as the rest of the top five manufacturers reported shrinking sales to retailers and distributors.
Surely only a blockhead would pay these prices? - Blockheads with $3,000 burning a hole in their pockets and a desire for a new coat can now blow their dough on a Minecraft-themed garment from high-end fashion brand Burberry.
Surely only a blockhead would pay these prices? - Blockheads with $3,000 burning a hole in their pockets and a desire for a new coat can now blow their dough on a Minecraft-themed garment from high-end fashion brand Burberry.
Don't the factory workers of China know that the season of huge shopping sprees starts next week? - One of the plants at which Taiwanese contract manufacturer Foxconn makes Apple's iPhone is experiencing an outbreak of COVID-19, potentially imperilling supply.
Don't the factory workers of China know that the season of huge shopping sprees starts next week? - One of the plants at which Taiwanese contract manufacturer Foxconn makes Apple's iPhone is experiencing an outbreak of COVID-19, potentially imperilling supply.
The Capital of VA? Virtual assets have to live somewhere and HK thinks it has the regulation for it - Hong Kong is trying to push its vision of a local virtual asset (VA) industry in the hopes of developing a new revenue stream for the country.
The Capital of VA? Virtual assets have to live somewhere and HK thinks it has the regulation for it - Hong Kong is trying to push its vision of a local virtual asset (VA) industry in the hopes of developing a new revenue stream for the country.
Phones weren't made to fly - Welcome once more to Who, Me? The Register's weekly walk-through of readers being just a little bit bad … but mostly getting away with it!
Phones weren't made to fly - Welcome once more to Who, Me? The Register's weekly walk-through of readers being just a little bit bad … but mostly getting away with it!
Shares misinformation, re-litigates takeover trial, complains about on-boarding process, and more - Chief Twit Elon Musk has taken control of Twitter and shown he is well and truly up to the job title he gave himself after paying $44 billion for the micro-blogging platform.
Shares misinformation, re-litigates takeover trial, complains about on-boarding process, and more - Chief Twit Elon Musk has taken control of Twitter and shown he is well and truly up to the job title he gave himself after paying $44 billion for the micro-blogging platform.
Pocket change for troubled Facebook giant, plus more US election news - Despite warnings of Chinese and Russian mischief and manipulation ahead of the US midterm elections, it seems American companies and citizens are perfectly capable of denting democracy on their own.
Pocket change for troubled Facebook giant, plus more US election news - Despite warnings of Chinese and Russian mischief and manipulation ahead of the US midterm elections, it seems American companies and citizens are perfectly capable of denting democracy on their own.
Ducks Zuck's bad luck as fanbois chuck bucks at M2 SoC... but CFO warns it's unlikely to last - Apple bucked negative sentiments in a tough week for big technology businesses by meeting analysts’ revenue estimates for its latest quarter, yet it too is now warning of economic ripples ahead.
Ducks Zuck's bad luck as fanbois chuck bucks at M2 SoC... but CFO warns it's unlikely to last - Apple bucked negative sentiments in a tough week for big technology businesses by meeting analysts’ revenue estimates for its latest quarter, yet it too is now warning of economic ripples ahead.
If not for Apple, this addition to this week's orgy of bad economic indicators would be even less pleasant - Sorry to bring you another item of news focusing on indicators of poor economic conditions, but analyst outfit Counterpoint Research has just revealed data that finds sales of smartphones have dipped to levels not seen since 2014.
If not for Apple, this addition to this week's orgy of bad economic indicators would be even less pleasant - Sorry to bring you another item of news focusing on indicators of poor economic conditions, but analyst outfit Counterpoint Research has just revealed data that finds sales of smartphones have dipped to levels not seen since 2014.
As progress revealed on Android port to the open ISA - Canonical has brought its Ubuntu Linux operating system to another RISC-V system: this week, Sipeed's LicheeRV single board computer.
As progress revealed on Android port to the open ISA - Canonical has brought its Ubuntu Linux operating system to another RISC-V system: this week, Sipeed's LicheeRV single board computer.
Set-top boxes are reclaiming their status as primary home entertainment access gateways - The latest generation of set top boxes (STBs) has reached a level of technological sophistication that's way beyond the single-function appliances that used to squat athwart chunky tubes in the early years of the satellite and cable TV revolution.
Set-top boxes are reclaiming their status as primary home entertainment access gateways - The latest generation of set top boxes (STBs) has reached a level of technological sophistication that's way beyond the single-function appliances that used to squat athwart chunky tubes in the early years of the satellite and cable TV revolution.
It worked for Lee Jae-yong, who now gets to handle a nasty profit plunge - Here's an unconventional career plan for you to consider:
It worked for Lee Jae-yong, who now gets to handle a nasty profit plunge - Here's an unconventional career plan for you to consider:
Surely staff organizing is Bias for Action and Think Big on those blasted leadership principles? - Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has been accused of breaking US labor laws by spouting anti-union comments in the media.
Surely staff organizing is Bias for Action and Think Big on those blasted leadership principles? - Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has been accused of breaking US labor laws by spouting anti-union comments in the media.
'No, no, they're shoppers, not employees' ain't gonna fly with DC AG - Shipt, a delivery service owned by Target, has been sued by the Attorney General of Washington DC for allegedly unlawfully misclassifying employees as independent contractors to avoid paying for worker benefits.
'No, no, they're shoppers, not employees' ain't gonna fly with DC AG - Shipt, a delivery service owned by Target, has been sued by the Attorney General of Washington DC for allegedly unlawfully misclassifying employees as independent contractors to avoid paying for worker benefits.
Won't somebody please think of the Cyberquad children? - Tesla's Cyberquad for Kids – a $1,900 mini-ATV that's the closest most people will get to a Cybertruck – has been recalled by US watchdogs over numerous safety issues.
Won't somebody please think of the Cyberquad children? - Tesla's Cyberquad for Kids – a $1,900 mini-ATV that's the closest most people will get to a Cybertruck – has been recalled by US watchdogs over numerous safety issues.
Sure you have a choice. You could abandon the European market - Apple exec Greg "Joz" Joswiak has confirmed that the company will follow the European Union's requirement for mobile devices to use USB-C by 2024, which was signed into law on Monday.
Sure you have a choice. You could abandon the European market - Apple exec Greg "Joz" Joswiak has confirmed that the company will follow the European Union's requirement for mobile devices to use USB-C by 2024, which was signed into law on Monday.
You might catch a whiff of it in Slack or Teams next year, but otherwise normal human life goes on - Mark Zuckerberg's metaverse push is getting a bit sad. One only has to look at the ads pumped into Facebook by parent company Meta, forcing the concept down people's throats. The comments left on each strongly imply next to no appetite for the hypothetical tech in neither business nor leisure.
You might catch a whiff of it in Slack or Teams next year, but otherwise normal human life goes on - Mark Zuckerberg's metaverse push is getting a bit sad. One only has to look at the ads pumped into Facebook by parent company Meta, forcing the concept down people's throats. The comments left on each strongly imply next to no appetite for the hypothetical tech in neither business nor leisure.
They're tidy, speedy, small – and wall off your working life - I was recently given a desktop computer, and the modest machine is the most fun I've had during my year of Desktop Tourism – the project that's seen me trial all kinds of weird and normal client devices each month since March 2022.
They're tidy, speedy, small – and wall off your working life - I was recently given a desktop computer, and the modest machine is the most fun I've had during my year of Desktop Tourism – the project that's seen me trial all kinds of weird and normal client devices each month since March 2022.
Search giant says changes already made since prosecutors showed up with a warrant years ago - After six years of wrangling, the US Department of Justice and Google have reached an agreement to resolve a dispute over the ad giant's inability to turn over records requested in a warrant. The problem? That data was lost before the case could be settled.
Search giant says changes already made since prosecutors showed up with a warrant years ago - After six years of wrangling, the US Department of Justice and Google have reached an agreement to resolve a dispute over the ad giant's inability to turn over records requested in a warrant. The problem? That data was lost before the case could be settled.
Bad news for Apple maybe; bad news for China's tech sector definitely - Foxconn's Zhengzhou campus, the Chinese company's largest iPhone production facility, has admitted it's facing another COVID-19 outbreak, but made assurances it has had minimal impact on operations.
Bad news for Apple maybe; bad news for China's tech sector definitely - Foxconn's Zhengzhou campus, the Chinese company's largest iPhone production facility, has admitted it's facing another COVID-19 outbreak, but made assurances it has had minimal impact on operations.
FAGA's interest in payments and lending services has UK's Financial Conduct Authority's attention - The Financial Conduct Authority, the UK's financial services regulator, has begun discussions with the aim of understanding the impact of Big Tech on industry competition.
FAGA's interest in payments and lending services has UK's Financial Conduct Authority's attention - The Financial Conduct Authority, the UK's financial services regulator, has begun discussions with the aim of understanding the impact of Big Tech on industry competition.
Pandemic gold rush for hardware slingers is over? - Logitech made hay during the pandemic but like many businesses dependent on the PC ecosystem, turnover is tanking and income is tumbling.
Pandemic gold rush for hardware slingers is over? - Logitech made hay during the pandemic but like many businesses dependent on the PC ecosystem, turnover is tanking and income is tumbling.
Flaming 'eck! - GPUs have been a hot commodity but this is ridiculous. Nvidia's use of a 600W power socket and cable with its RTX graphics cards may have sounded like a good idea at the time but some users have reported overheating issues.
Flaming 'eck! - GPUs have been a hot commodity but this is ridiculous. Nvidia's use of a 600W power socket and cable with its RTX graphics cards may have sounded like a good idea at the time but some users have reported overheating issues.
Warns of class action lawsuits and personal injury claims in wake of health product recall - The recently installed CEO at Philips has confirmed a restructuring blueprint that includes making 4,000 staff redundant to reduce overheads following sliding sales and steep losses.
Windows Dev Kit 2023 packs Qualcomm's AI toys and an all-Arm environment for Windows coding - Microsoft has delivered on its May 2022 promise to give devs a cheap piece of Arm-powered hardware on which to run AI-accelerated workloads for Windows, by revealing the Windows Dev Kit 2023 and placing it on sale at $599.
Start with dumping a fifth of staff, capping that VR capex, firm urges - In a sternly-worded letter to CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Meta stockholders have urge the mega-corporation to "get fit and focused" by cutting 20 percent of staff and shaving $5 billion off annual capital expenses and metaverse investments.
Now, who talked up that market to begin with? - HP Inc. CEO Enrique Lores says orders for 3D printers are falling short of early promise, with some analysts saying the tech has failed to cross into the mainstream despite a relative boom during the pandemic.
McKinsey forecasts market value of $5 trillion by 2030, Citi says up to $13 trillion, but Canalys doesn't agree - The metaverse is a solution looking for a B2B problem – that problem being how to help Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg drum up billions of dollars in revenues – and it's going to fail in the not-too-distant future.
China-owned boredom-killing biz issues precision-engineered denial - TikTok has been accused of preparing to keep covert tabs on the physical whereabouts of certain US citizens using its app.
Can expensive tech save this reporter's ugly mug? Not likely - It's not just Reg readers who recognize the less than satisfactory quality of built-in computer webcams. Appparently, the world's biggest PC maker does too.
Twitter tells staff it knows of no plans, though. Plus: billionaire's ventures could take heat from Committee on Foreign Investment - Elon Musk has reportedly told investors in his Twitter buyout that he will gut the workforce by 75 percent once his court-ordered takeover concludes.
Productivity KPIs need a 21st century makeover, say tech bosses - Businesses need to reassess the metrics they apply to determine how productive employees are in the world of hybrid work – or risk staff leaving for a corporate culture that is more flexible and trusting.
Internet mega-souk thinks allegations are a waste of Prime - Amazon is facing a £900 million ($1 billion) lawsuit that claims its Buy Box algorithm breaks competition laws by unfairly favoring products sold by the American giant and preferred vendors.
You can kiss my Californian ass, says ad giant - Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has sued Google claiming the internet titan captured biometric data from millions of Texans without notice and consent.
Video Electronics Standards Association shows the USB Implementers Forum how it's done - The USB Implementers Forum, USB-IF, rolled out the spec of USB 4 version 2 just last month, as you've probably read in The Register. We noted at the time that the nitty-gritty stuff would debut in time for developer events scheduled for November.
Tick tick tick ... just 8 days to go - Billionaire Tesla boss Elon Musk told analysts last night he was excited about his upcoming deal to buy Twitter despite his apparent belief that he will be "obviously overpaying."
Don't penalize resellers for selling refurbished kit, educate shareholders on being Earth's friend - Hardware makers are currently among the mix when it comes to the problem of environmental sustainability, in part by "penalizing" and competing with resellers that are trying to sell refurbished kit.
Don't want to see ads during your trip? Sorry, no app for that - Uber has announced the creation of an advertising division dedicated to helping brands "connect with consumers throughout the entire ride process." That's right. The entire ride.
Remember, remember, the Microsoft trackers - DuckDuckGo's macOS browser has entered public beta, opening the privacy-centric browser to anyone on a Mac or MacBook willing to give it a go.
Oh snap. It's not going to work with existing passive cables if they're longer than a meter - A new generation of Thunderbolt interconnect technology is coming, with Intel promising data speeds up to 120Gbit/sec when it ships.
Inflation and energy prices force consumers to prioritize household bills over shiny electronic devices - The bad news juggernaut just keeps on rolling for devices maker, with global smartphone shipments for calendar Q3 falling to their lowest quarterly rate in eight years.
Can't say when they’ll roll out for sale or why you want kit with more moving parts - Lenovo has staged its annual Tech World gabfest and teased devices with rollable OLED screens that shrink or expand as applications demand.
As president of the G20, it will have the platform to make it happen - India's finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman has indicated the nation will uses its looming presidency of the G20 group of nations to push for multilateral regulation of cryptocurrency.
Fix-it guides among changes mulled by FTC for home appliances and potentially other stuff - In yet another sign the right-to-repair movement is gaining ground in the United States, manufacturers could be forced to provide fix-it guides and maintenance instructions with certain products.
Goodbye Lightning, hello USB-C and the usual two-year-old processor - Apple today announced an updated iPad Pro and a redesigned entry-level iPad.
Facebook to dump GIF super-gallery after just enough pestering from UK - Meta has thrown in the towel in its protracted legal battle with the UK’s antitrust watchdog over the US giant's $400 million purchase of Giphy. After another ruling against it, the Facebook parent said it will sell Giphy as ordered.
The company already sells penguin-infested laptops and desktops, but an x86 Linux fondleslab is new - Linux kit shifter, Juno, has a new gadget available for pre-order: a $425 x86-64 tablet with a choice of Linux distros on it. In the UK, that's £449 including VAT.
The cheapest 40-series card now starts at [checks notes] $1,199 - Just weeks after unveiling its 40-series cards powered by the all-new Ada Lovelace architecture, Nvidia said Friday it was pulling the plug on the RTX 4080 12GB before the card had even hit store shelves.
Happy International E-waste Day! - Alongside National Dessert Day, National Boss's Day, and World Egg Day, October 14 is also International E-waste Day. To celebrate, the unfortunately named WEEE Forum (that's waste electrical and electronic equipment) has compiled some grim reading.
Meta's push to put computing into a headset will end in tears - The Metaverse, as the company formerly known as Facebook defines the term in its financial filings, is "an embodied internet where people have immersive experiences beyond two-dimensional screens."
The demarcation line between IT and stationery is not electricity, but the line between dumb and nasty clearly starts at staplers - The seasons turn, the tides ebb and flow. Just as regularly, each Friday The Register delivers another instalment of On-Call, our reader-contributed tale of another sad constant: IT people being asked to do amazingly dumb things.
Eyestrain, nausea not entirely dealt with, military brass remain committed to AR - Microsoft Corp's HoloLens mixed reality goggles need further refinement before they're ready for US soldiers, according to a Defense Department report summary.
Get your own Playstation-on-wheels beginning in 2026, and be prepared to pay subscription fees - Sony and Honda have announced plans to jointly produce a "premium" electric vehicle that will be built in the United States, and they want it to be on North American roads beginning in 2026.
It's all about the Benjamins, says Michael Barr - Federal Reserve Vice Chair for Supervision Michael Barr says crypto-assets are "unlikely to grow into money substitutes" because they have proven to be so volatile and posed "novel" risks.
Plus, the Surface Laptop drops AMD, Studio arrives with an even higher price, and more - Microsoft put a coat of polish on its Surface line this week, including its third-generation tablet powered by an Arm-based CPU.
Who exactly asked for this? Can you explain how it works? Or why? - Microsoft and Meta have teamed up in the metaverse, to bring the software giant's OS and productivity tools into The Social Network's Meta Quest virtual reality hardware.
About to get a lot trickier to justify contractor status for app-hired folks - The US Department of Labor today signaled it hopes to make it much harder for companies to argue that gig workers and laborers, among others, are individual contractors rather than employees.
More analysts emerge to talk up hefty double digit shrink in unit volumes - PC shipments are plunging by record levels as enterprises spend less on devices and sweat assets for longer in the face of a worldwide economic slowdown.
As Nvidia hikes prices, Intel is only too happy to profit from your discontent, and AMD remains a wild card - For the first time in what feels like an eternity, customers have a third choice when it comes to graphics processors with the launch of Intel's mainstream Arc GPUs. It could be that AMD and Nvidia's long-standing duopoly has come to a close.
As energy prices rise, so does demand for the kind of low-end chips China cranks out - Here's an odd side effect of Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine: a small boom in exports of Chinese electric blankets to Europe.
Some plan to take a whole hour off - The union representing Apple Store workers in Australia has called a strike as part of ongoing negotiations for a new pay and conditions deal.
And why it's not actually a leak - Documents filed in crypto lender Celsius Networks' bankruptcy case have revealed financial info on more than 600,000 users.
It'll just go back to randomly shutting down accounts - PayPal has backed away from fining its own customers up to $2,500 for promoting whatever it determines is "misinformation."
Wouldn't want anyone to know how much luggage is lost, eh? - Lufthansa over the weekend said it is banning Apple AirTags from checked bags, only to subsequently attribute the policy to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).
Expect more sequels than Rocky: Europeans' view of 'proportional' very different from US - The Trans-Atlantic Data Privacy Framework agreement between the EU and the US is unlikely to settle the issue of sharing personal data between the two economic superpowers, as a set of court cases and legal challenges loom on the horizon.
Cupertino managed to buck the trend with year-on-year growth of 40% - Global PC shipments declined in calendar Q3 by 15 percent year-on-year thanks to reduced demand and lingering supply chain issues, according to number cruncher IDC.
Chetu ordered to pay restitution for employee's unlawful termination - A telephone sales rep in the Netherlands has won an unfair dismissal court case against his former employer, US software company Chetu, after he was fired for refusing to spend his work day surveilled by his computer camera.
Emperor penguin swipes Intel's attitude to ECC memory and maybe wimpy Mac performance too - If the next version of the Linux kernel emerges a little slower than usual, blame a dodgy DIMM in Linus Torvalds's AMD Threadripper-powered PC and the vagaries of the memory market.
Instead of a week of profits, mere days of net income for Cook - The record-setting €1.1 billion fine levied against Apple by French authorities has been cut by two-thirds to just €372 million ($363 million) – an even more paltry sum for the world's first company to surpass $3 trillion in market valuation.
What’s worse than absurd support requests at work? Ridiculous requests at home, that’s what - As another working week ebbs away, dispel any thoughts that your efforts have made no mark in history by wallowing in other readers’ misery in another instalment of On-Call, The Register’s weekly tale of being asked to fix the ridiculous and absurd.
Q3 revenue still set to be up overall, Ryzen biz says in FYI to Wall St - AMD has warned investors its guidance for quarterly revenue was out by $1.1 billion.
This and wearables fortified with machine learning to serve you, human - On Thursday Google held an event in Brooklyn, New York to introduce revised Pixel phones, along with the Pixel Watch mentioned at the search giant's developer conference in May. There was also a glimpse of a Pixel tablet due next year.
Remember the bad old days when getting X settings wrong could fry your CRT? They're back, kinda - A bug in version 5.19.12 of the Linux kernel "may harm" screens on laptops powered by Intel's 12th-generation Core processors.
Get ready for that deposition tomorrow, Elon - Elon Musk's decision this week to go ahead with his Twitter purchase – after months of trying to wriggle out of the deal – hasn't automatically stopped his upcoming trial, the judge overseeing the case said today.
Anyone remember SoftBank's pledge to double headcount in Britain? - Arm has reportedly chopped around 20 percent of its headcount in the UK, unpicking some of the recruitment commitments parent SoftBank made to the government when it bought the chip designer.
We guess new chips are only for Pros - At this week’s big iPhone launch, Apple's custom Arm-compatible chips – known as Apple Silicon – received little fanfare compared to what the processors have enjoyed at previous events.
Tech billionaire can tap into Mudge whistleblower complaint, though - A judge has turned down Elon Musk's request to delay his trial with Twitter.
With Crash Detection (no, not that kind) and satellite-powered SOS when cell service is absent - Apple on Wednesday enticed favored members of the media and its ever-enthusiastic employees from Cupertino to hear word of the company's iPhone 14, Apple Watch 8, and second generation AirPods Pro earbuds.
Whether this works as advertised is key - Ring's battery-powered video-doorbells-slash-surveillance cameras can finally turn on end-to-end encryption (E2EE).
Finding Zen just got a little easier - AMD is changing the way it names mobile processors to make it more obvious whether you’re getting their freshest Zen cores or last year’s leftovers.
Being subcontractors, their working conditions ain't our problem – US giant's stance - A group of delivery drivers subcontracting for Amazon in Japan have unionized, claiming the internet titan's AI software often plans routes that are impossible to complete within set deadlines.
Good for the environment? Bad for the customer, say Brazilian officials after fining iGiant, banning certain sales - Brazil's government is freezing certain iPhone sales in the country and fining Apple for removing chargers from its smartphones, something officials there have declared a practice harmful to consumers, despite being presented as an act of environmental heroism.
Hundreds of 'intentional' violations could cost Zuck and Co $30k each - Facebook has been found guilty in Washington of breaking the state's strict campaign finance transparency laws – again – and was defeated in its attempt to get a judge to loosen those laws to favor it.
Meta set to the appeal the data protection authority's near $400m penalty - Ireland's data protection authority has fined Instagram almost $400 million for mishandling children's data.
By striking down Google and Facebook, the iMaker's transformation is complete - Although Apple's sales pitch for the idea was protecting users' privacy, it appears the company's App Tracking Transparency (ATT) initiative has been kind to its wallet as well, pushing it to the top of the mobile app advertising market in the past year.
It’s an eight-bit affair for the Apple II, complete with Flying Toasters and many other upgrades - Apple will on September 7th stage one of its live infomercials to launch products expected to include this year’s iPhone – complete with satellite messaging capabilities – plus wireless earbuds, an enhanced smart watch, and maybe even some new tablet computers.
More silicon sales for us says Qualcomm - Meta’s latest move in the effort to reinvent Second Life, or roll out the metaverse, involves building better VR chips and it's trusting Qualcomm with the job.
Or so says a hopeful IDC after releasing latest forecast of doom - The pandemic fueled buying frenzy in the PC industry looks to be well and truly over with analysts at IDC forecasting a double digit decline in shipments this year, and growth hopes for next pinned on a Windows 10 enterprise refresh.
Rules for devices including phones aimed at reducing environmental impact of scroll addiction - The European Union is proposing legislation which will make manufacturers of tablets and smartphones offer longer-life batteries and spare parts for at least five years after the model is removed from the market.
When the PCs were pilfered by ram raiding rotters, green screens proved their worth - Welcome again to On-Call, The Register’s trawl through readers’ reminiscences of tech trials and tribulations.
Not worthy of the name 'smart glasses' and not sold outside China until 2023 - Lenovo has launched a face-mounted wearable monitor.
You’re going to need new cables and learn to recognize revised logos - The USB Promoter Group has announced version 2.0 of the USB4 spec and promises it can carry data at 80Gbps.
They were asking for it, energy giant says - Thousands of Xcel Energy customers in Colorado this week discovered they’d been locked out of their smart thermostats, unable to adjust their air conditioning systems as local temperatures rose about well above 90°F this week.
How Fog Data Science sells records of your whereabouts, according to the EFF - For less than $10,000, and without a warrant, cops can buy large amounts of location data on private citizens and track people's movements over long periods of time.
Looks like the bird site didn't need Musk's money to get the feature added, after all - Twitter's long-awaited edit button is being tested internally, and in the coming weeks will be available to Twitter Blue subscribers before a wider rollout, the social media company said today.
Not a great look for the state that just vowed to phase out gas-powered cars in favor of battery-powered ones - One week after announcing plans to phase out autos powered by gasoline, California energy authorities are facing a heat wave so severe residents are being asked not to charge their electric vehicles during "flex alerts" designed to reduce stress on the grid.
Affixes magnetically attached Bluetooth unit instead of soft keyboard after feedback - Lenovo has exhibited an updated version of its ThinkPad X1 Fold portable, a device that is a mash-up of a folding-screen tablet and a Windows laptop, with a sleeker, slimmer design sporting Intel's 12th-gen Core processors and Windows 11.
Buy a new phone or pay food and household energy bills? Shipments to crash in 2022 - Smartphone shipments are forecast to shrink globally by 6.5 percent this year as many households feeling the pinch of inflation decide to prioritize paying for food, energy and other essentials over refreshing handsets.
Doxing and hate-spreading websites deserve as much space on the internet as you or I, says CEO - On Wednesday content delivery network Cloudflare published a blog post explaining the circumstances under which abusive websites are eligible for service, just as a storm is brewing on that very topic.
All part of an extra 40GWh of production capacity in US, Japan by 2026 - Toyota says it plans to invest up to an additional $5.3 billion in electric vehicle (EV) battery production that it will split between facilities in the US and Japan.
Minister says it needs to copy Vietnam and China's 'first globalize, then localize' strategy - India's Ministry of State for Electronics & Information Technology released a report this week exploring how the subcontinent might increase electronics production by roughly 400 percent and exports by an ambitious 750 percent by 2026.
The solution? Inventing another 'transformation programme' to transform previous transformation - HP is putting together a recovery plan to counter a sharp slowdown in its PC and printer businesses, including yet another transformation program.
Digital minister will drive change because, in theory, uploading info to government isn't allowed - Japan's digital minister Taro Kono has pledged to rip up laws that require floppy disks and CD-ROMs to be used when sending data to the nation's government.
And throws a copy of Mudge's allegations to the SEC, too, just in case it hasn't read them yet - Elon Musk's lawyers issued a double whammy this week in the ongoing quest by the world's richest man to cancel his own proposed takeover of Twitter.
Will Newsom sign it? With a possible presidential bid looming, take a guess - California lawmakers have approved a major online safety bill to protect children – and critics worry the legislation will turn websites into identity checkpoints.
Indian residents will be able to buy their groceries through the chat app – for as long as the government is happy with the idea - Meta's messaging service WhatsApp will launch its first end to end e-commerce service in India, through an alliance with giant conglomerate Reliance Industries’ digital business and mobile telephony subsidiary, Jio Platforms.
Prices start at $300, you'll also need a new motherboard, RAM, etc - AMD has refreshed its desktop processors for the first time in nearly two years, revealing Ryzen 7000-series processors that boast clock speeds that can reach 5.7GHz and performance up to 29 percent greater than their predecessors.
Which would be very problematic in this Post-Roe era - The Federal Trade Commission has accused data broker Kochava of trampling over people's privacy by selling the "precise" whereabouts of hundreds of millions of mobile devices.
Snapdragon giant was accused of bribing Apple not to use rival modems - The European Commission has reportedly called it quits in its bid to fine Qualcomm for alleged anti-competitive payments to Apple.
Claims it has 'the world’s largest' OLED - LG Electronics released a TV it is claiming is “the world’s largest” OLED.
Online shops sharing data about you with others qualifies as a sale in AG's book – and that means rules apply - Sephora has agreed to cough up $1.2 million to settle claims it broke California's privacy law.
The memorial 'Enterprise Flight' later this year will also include ashes from other Star Trek alumni - Late actress Nichelle Nichols, who for 25 years portrayed the USS Enterprise's communications officer Uhura, is set to be memorialized among the stars later this year.
Somebody set us up the bomb - Electronic Arts stock has been volatile this morning on rumors that Amazon was preparing to put in an offer to buy the company that were quickly deemed questionable.
Also: Smiling, eye tracking, and general 'social presence' baked into Project Cambria - Facebook limited the visibility of the New York Post's story about Hunter Biden's laptop on the social media platform while it was being fact-checked after receiving warnings from the FBI of disinformation campaigns, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg told the Joe Rogan Experience on Thursday.
And not the fake ones that just try to change their minds - Google search results and Maps will clearly label healthcare clinics that provide abortion services, reducing the chances that women in crisis will be misdirected to "clinics" that don't in fact offer healthcare.
Navigation tool still on the road ... for now - Google is shutting down its Waze carpooling service apparently due to poor demand from workers commuting into the office – although road traffic has bounced back to levels from the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
PC component manufacturers won't get priority as area faces fires and heatwaves - Officials from the manufacturing hub of Chongqing notified factories on Wednesday that mandated power cuts in the municipality were extended until further notice, affecting both PC and Apple suppliers.
Mobilises the Pi nicely but also frustrates in a few ways - The Raspberry Pi is rightly celebrated as a very clever feat of design. But I've always found Pi-based machines hard to work with because connecting a Pi to the peripherals needed to make it useful creates a tangle of wires.
India wants low-end Chinese smartphones out – and its efforts may be working - Chinese gadget giant Xiaomi has warned in its April-June 2022 earnings report that its troubles in India – related to allegations of improperly moving funds offshore – could noticeably affect business.
Frozen firm has yet to return all funds to netizens - More than 30 employees at the bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange Voyager will receive $1.6 million in bonus pay as the company scrambles to return customers' funds frozen on its platform.
Chipzilla's story Arc continues - Intel says its datacenter-focused Flex-series GPUs, codenamed Arctic Sound, are finally ready, and computer makers are expected to begin shipping systems over the next few months.
Smile! You're on Candid Doorbell – and the joke's on us all - It's hard to understand why anyone expressed surprise when Amazon's VP of public policy, Brian Huseman, recently admitted sharing data with police.
Users may get around $0.53 each, Facebook would lose about eight hours of annual profit - Meta has offered to pay $37.5 million to settle a class-action lawsuit, which claimed its social media platform Facebook illegally harvested location data even when users explicitly denied consent.
US watchdog snubs Intuit's request to drop claims of bait-and-switch tactics - The FTC is pressing ahead with its allegations of false advertising against Turbo Tax maker Intuit after a brief pause in proceedings.
Meanwhile, Mark Zuckerberg's Meta spends billions on the concept - While Meta has been hemorrhaging billions trying to bring CEO Mark Zuckerberg's metaverse to life with little to show for it, China has decided it too will take a crack at the virtual-reality concept.