You Only Need $750 to Pilfer Unencrypted Data From Satellites, Researchers Say
“A new study published on Monday found that communications from cellphone carriers, retailers, banks, and even militaries are being broadcast unencrypted through geostationary satellites…” reports Gizmodo. “The team obtained unencrypted internet communications from U.S. military sea vessels and even communications re … ⌘ Read more

Should Scientists Be Allowed to Edit Genes of Wild Animals? Top Conservation Groups Just Voted Yes
It’s the world’s largest network of environmental groups, according to NBC News, with more than 1,400 members from roughly 160 countries. It meets once every four years.

And in a vote Tuesday, the International Union for Conservation of Nature “approved further exploration of … ⌘ Read more

Windows 10 Refugees Flock To Linux as Zorin OS Claims ‘Biggest Launch Ever’
“Windows 10 is officially dead,” writes Slashdot user darwinmac, “and the vultures are circling. Or maybe they are liberators, depending on your point of view.” Neowin reports:

Of all the projects trying to poach Windows users, Zorin Group might be the most aggressive, launching its biggest OS upgrade, Zorin OS 18, on the ver … ⌘ Read more

Perplexity’s AI Browser ‘Comet’ is Now Free, with Big Marketing Deals to Challenge Chrome
“Earlier available only to the paying subscribers, the Comet browser now offers its core features to all users at no cost,” writes the Times of India. “This includes AI-powered search, contextual recommendations, and integrated tools designed to streamline research and content discovery.” They say the move … ⌘ Read more

Researchers Build Complex 3D-Printed, Carbon-Absorbing Bridge Inspired by Bones
Concrete accounts for about 8% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, notes CNN. But a research team at the University of Pennsylvania just used a robotic 3D printer to construct a bridge with “complex, lattice-like patterns” that are just as strong and durable — but with materials that absorb more carbon dioxide.

… ⌘ Read more

‘How We Sharpened the James Webb Telescope’s Vision From a Million Kilometers Away’
The James Webb Space Telescope gets its highest resolution with the aperture masking interferometer (or AMI), “a tiny piece of precisely machined metal that slots into one of the telescope’s cameras,” according to a new article by Benjamin Pope, an associated math professor at Macquarie University.
“We can fi … ⌘ Read more

Are Parts of the World Retreating on Electric Vehicles?
Canada’s Prime Minister “paused an electric-vehicle sales mandate that was set to take effect next year,” reports the Wall Street Journal, which argues a kind of retreat from electric-vehicle ambitions “is spreading around the globe.”

Even the U.K.’s Prime Minister “has allowed for a more flexible timetable to hit the country’s EV targets.” And demand is expected … ⌘ Read more

Reddit Mod Warns ‘Do Not Trust’ AI-Powered ‘Reddit Answers’ After It Posts Dangerous Health Advice
In Reddit’s “Family Medicine” subreddit, a moderator noticed earlier this week that the AI-powered “Reddit Answers” was automatically responding to posters, typically with “something related to what was posted.” Unfortunately, that moderator says, Reddit Answers “has been spreading gr … ⌘ Read more

Email Bombs Exploit Lax Authentication In Zendesk
Cybercriminals are exploiting weak email authentication settings in Zendesk, using the platform’s customer support systems to bombard targets with thousands of spam and harassing messages that appear to come from legitimate companies like The Washington Post, Discord, and NordVPN. KrebsOnSecurity reports: Zendesk is an automated help desk service designed to make it simple for … ⌘ Read more

Apple, Samsung Report Underwhelming Sales of Their New Thin Smartphones
In two separate reports, Apple and Samsung are said to report underwhelming sales of their new ultra-thin smartphones. According to The Elec, Apple plans to cut production of the iPhone Air while Samsung has canceled its planned Galaxy S26 Edge smartphone after disappointing sales of the Galaxy S25 Edge, Korea’s NewsPim claims. Mac … ⌘ Read more

A Classified Network of SpaceX Satellites Is Emitting a Mysterious Signal
A network of classified Starshield satellites built by SpaceX for the U.S. government is transmitting signals on radio frequencies reserved for Earth-to-space commands. According to NPR, it may violate international standards. From the report: Satellites associated with the Starshield satellite network appear to be transmitting … ⌘ Read more

AI-Generated Lesson Plans Fall Short On Inspiring Students, Promoting Critical Thinking
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Conversation: When teachers rely on commonly used artificial intelligence chatbots to devise lesson plans, it does not result in more engaging, immersive or effective learning experiences compared with existing techniques, we found in our recent study. The AI … ⌘ Read more

Wikipedia Volunteers Avert Tragedy by Taking Down Gunman at Conference
A potential tragedy was narrowly averted at a Wikipedia conference in Manhattan when two volunteer editors tackled an armed man who stormed the stage and threatened to kill himself during a keynote speech (source paywalled; alternative source). The gunman, who claimed he was protesting Wikipedia’s policy banning self-identified pedophi … ⌘ Read more

First Look at the Amazon’s Nuclear Facility Planned For Washington State
Amazon is investing hundreds of millions into the Cascade Advanced Energy Facility, a next-generation small modular reactor project in Richland, Washington, developed with X-energy and Energy Northwest. “The question now is will it be enough to kick off a new wave of U.S. nuclear energy innovation – a field that America largel … ⌘ Read more

Prosper Data Breach Impacts 17.6 Million Accounts
Hackers breached financial services firm Prosper, stealing the personal data of roughly 17.6 million people, including Social Security numbers, income details, and government IDs. “We have evidence that confidential, proprietary, and personal information, including Social Security Numbers, was obtained, including through unauthorized queries made on Company databases that store … ⌘ Read more

US Hyperscalers To Consume 22% More Grid Power By End of 2025
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Register: Hyperscale datacenters stateside will consume 22 percent more grid power by the end of 2025 than a year ago, and are forecast to need nearly three times as much electricity by the end of the decade. Warnings about datacenters’ rising energy draw are coming thick and fast of late, and this latest … ⌘ Read more

Apple Inks $750 Million For US Formula 1 Streaming Coverage
Apple has struck a five-year, $750 million deal to become the exclusive U.S. home for Formula 1 starting in 2026. “Apple is paying a significant premium over the $90 million per year currently paid by ESPN, whose F1 broadcast deal expires at the end of 2025 after holding the rights in the U.S. since 2018,” notes Variety. From the report: According to Apple … ⌘ Read more

Amazon’s Ring Partners With Flock, a Network of AI Cameras Used By Police
Amazon’s Ring has announced a partnership with Flock Safety, the AI-powered camera network already used by ICE, the Secret Service, and other federal agencies. “Now agencies that use Flock can request that Ring doorbell users share footage to help with ‘evidence collection and investigative work,’” reports TechCrunch. From the repo … ⌘ Read more

Big Tech Sues Texas, Says Age-Verification Law Is ‘Broad Censorship Regime’
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Texas is being sued by a Big Tech lobby group over the state’s new law that will require app stores to verify users’ ages and impose restrictions on users under 18. “The Texas App Store Accountability Act imposes a broad censorship regime on the entire universe of mobile app … ⌘ Read more

Plug-in Hybrids Pollute Almost As Much As Petrol Cars, Report Finds
Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) pump out nearly five times more planet-heating pollution than official figures show, a report has found. The Guardian: The cars, which can run on electric batteries as well as combustion engines, have been promoted by European carmakers as a way to cover long distances in a single drive – unlike full … ⌘ Read more

Salesforce Sued By Authors Over AI Software
An anonymous reader shares a report: Cloud-computing firm Salesforce was hit with a proposed class action lawsuit by two authors who alleged the company used thousands of books without permission to train its AI software. Novelists Molly Tanzer and Jennifer Gilmore said in the complaint that Salesforce infringed copyrights by using their work to train its xGen AI models to process languag … ⌘ Read more

Atari’s Resurrecting the Intellivision, One of Its Biggest Competitors in the ‘80s
An anonymous reader shares a report: Atari has announced yet another retro console revival, but this time it’s launching hardware from an old competitor.

Atari and Plaion, a company that develops, publishes, and distributes games, have collaborated on the new Intellivision Sprint that blends ‘80s console aesthet … ⌘ Read more

Global Investors Position India as Anti-AI Play
Foreign institutional investors have pulled nearly $30 billion from Indian equity markets over the past twelve months. A substantial portion of that capital moved to Korea and Taiwan. Foreign portfolio investor ownership in stocks listed on India’s National Stock Exchange fell from 22.2% in September 2024 to 17.3% in May 2025. Taiwan absorbed $15 billion of net foreign inflows in the t … ⌘ Read more

Creator of Infamous AI Painting Tells Court He’s a Real Artist
Jason Allen has responded to critics who say he is not an artist by filing a new brief and announcing plans to sell oil-print reproductions of his AI-generated image. Allen won the Colorado State Fair Fine Arts Competition in 2022 after submitting Theatre D’opera Spatial, which Midjourney created. He said in a press release that being called an artist does … ⌘ Read more

12 Years of HDD Analysis Brings Insight To the Bathtub Curve’s Reliability
Backblaze has been tracking hard disk drive failures in its datacenter since 2013. The backup and cloud storage company’s latest analysis of approximately 317,230 drives shows that peak failure rates have dropped dramatically and shifted much later in a drive’s lifespan. Where the company once saw failure rates of 13.73% at … ⌘ Read more

Instant Coffee Beats Drip in Blind Taste Tests
Instant coffee beat drip coffee in blind taste tests conducted by researchers at the Drexel Food Lab. Jonathan Deutsch and Rachel Sherman tested 84 participants across two rounds of tastings for The Guardian’s Filter US newsletter. They first narrowed 24 instant coffee varieties to the best options. Those finalists then competed against drip coffees in a second test. 77% of particip … ⌘ Read more

New York Bans AI-Enabled Rent Price Fixing
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has signed into law legislation banning the use of price-fixing software by landlords to set rental rates. From a report: New York is the first state to outlaw algorithmic pricing by landlords, following a number of city-wide bans in Jersey City, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Seattle. Software companies such as RealPage offer landlords algorithms that can set renta … ⌘ Read more

Samsung To Showcase Its First Ever Trifold Phone Later This Month
An anonymous reader shares a report: Samsung Electronics will unveil its highly-anticipated trifold smartphone when world leaders and global dignitaries gather at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in South Korea later this month. It will be the company’s first device with two hinges – allowing it to work as either a conventional s … ⌘ Read more

Army General Says He’s Using AI To Improve ‘Decision-Making’
Maj. Gen. William Taylor told reporters at the Association of the US Army Conference in Washington this week that he and the Eighth Army he commands out of South Korea are regularly using AI for decision-making. Taylor said he has been asking AI chatbots to help build models for personal decisions that affect his organization and overall readiness. The gene … ⌘ Read more

Wikipedia Says AI Is Causing a Dangerous Decline in Human Visitors
The Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit organization that hosts Wikipedia, says that it’s seeing a significant decline in human traffic to the online encyclopedia because more people are getting the information that’s on Wikipedia via generative AI chatbots that were trained on its articles and search engines that summarize them without actua … ⌘ Read more

Only 40% of Workers Have High-Quality Jobs, Gallup Finds
joshuark writes: Not all jobs are created equal, according to the new American Job Quality Study. The nationally representative survey of roughly 18,000 Americans finds that just 40% of U.S. workers hold “quality jobs,” “Quality jobs” are defined as roles with fair compensation, safe environments, growth opportunities, agency and manageable schedules. Quality jobs are … ⌘ Read more

EU Expands USB-C Mandate To Chargers
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Heise: The European Commission has revised the Ecodesign requirements for external power supplies (EPS). The new rules aim to increase consumer convenience, resource efficiency, and energy efficiency. Manufacturers have three years to prepare for the changes. The new regulations apply to external power supplies that charge or power devices such as laptops, s … ⌘ Read more

Physicists Inadvertently Generated the Shortest X-Ray Pulses Ever Observed
Physicists using SLAC’s X-ray free-electron laser discovered two new laser phenomena that allowed them to generate the shortest, highest-energy X-ray pulses ever recorded (60-100 attoseconds). These breakthroughs could let scientists observe electron motion and chemical bond formation in real time. Physicists Uwe Bergmann a … ⌘ Read more

Scientists Create New Form of Ice, Known As Ice XXI
fahrbot-bot shares a report from Popular Mechanics: [I]n a new study published in the journal Nature Materials, scientists from the Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science (KRISS) have now found yet another phase, appropriately named Ice XXI. At the heart of the experiment, scientists used diamond anvil cells (DACs) – a common device used in materials scien … ⌘ Read more

New ITVX Channel Streams Absolutely Spellbinding Footage of Earth… Forever
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: I realize that, at this point, there are already far too many shows. Every channel, every streaming service is teeming with content demanding your attention, and there are simply too few hours in the day to watch them all. However, with that in mind, may I recommend a new … ⌘ Read more

Spotify Says It’s Working With Labels On ‘Responsible’ AI Music Tools
Spotify has officially partnered with major record labels to create a “responsible AI” initiative aimed at developing generative music tools that supposedly benefit both artists and fans. While Spotify promises choice, transparency, and fair compensation, the vague announcement has many skeptics wondering if “responsible AI” is ju … ⌘ Read more

Video Game Union Workers Rally Against $55 Billion Saudi-Backed Private Acquisition of EA
EA employees and the Communications Workers of America union have condemned the company’s proposed $55 billion private acquisition – backed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund and Jared Kushner’s Affinity Partners, “claiming they were not represented in the negotiations and any jobs lost as … ⌘ Read more

Miami Is Testing a Self-Driving Police Car That Can Launch Drones
Miami-Dade County is piloting a self-driving police car built by PolicingLab and powered by Perrone Robotics, equipped with 360-degree cameras, AI analytics, license plate readers, and even drone-launch capabilities. The Drive reports: “Designed as a force multiplier, the PUG combines advanced autonomy from Perrone Robotics with AI-driven analy … ⌘ Read more

Sony Tells SCOTUS That People Accused of Piracy Aren’t ‘Innocent Grandmothers’
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Record labels Sony, Warner, and Universal yesterday asked the Supreme Court to help it boot pirates off the Internet. Sony and the other labels filed their brief (PDF) in Cox Communications v. Sony Music Entertainment, a case involving the cable Internet service provid … ⌘ Read more

Meta Is Building a Smart TV In VR
Meta has officially launched Horizon TV, a virtual reality “smart TV” app for its Quest headsets. The app mirrors modern smart TV interfaces with deep-linked streaming apps and curated recommendations – but it’s still missing major players like Netflix and Disney+. From a report: Except Horizon TV isn’t running on a TV or streaming stick, but on the company’s Meta Quest headsets. Unveiled at Meta C … ⌘ Read more

Google DeepMind Partners With Fusion Startup
Google DeepMind is partnering with Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS) to use its Torax AI software to simulate and optimize plasma behavior inside the company’s Sparc fusion reactor. TechCrunch reports: There’s a reason Google keeps coming back to the problem: AI might be uniquely suited to making fusion power possible. One of the biggest challenges facing fusion startups is keeping … ⌘ Read more

Open Source GZDoom Community Splinters After Creator Inserts AI-Generated Code
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: If you’ve even idly checked in on the robust world of Doom fan development in recent years, you’ve probably encountered one of the hundreds of gameplay mods, WAD files, or entire commercial games based on GZDoom. The open source Doom port – which can trace its li … ⌘ Read more

Chinese Criminals Made More Than $1 Billion From Those Annoying Texts
The U.S. is awash with scam text messages. Officials say it has become a billion-dollar, highly sophisticated business benefiting criminals in China. From a report: Your highway toll payment is now past due, one text warns. You have U.S. Postal Service fees to pay, another threatens. You owe the New York City Department of Finance for unp … ⌘ Read more

Apple Readies High-End MacBook Pro With Touch, Hole-Punch Screen
Speaking of the new MacBook Pro, which Apple launched on Wednesday, Bloomberg News reports that the company is preparing to launch a touch-screen version of its Mac computer, reversing course on a stance that dates back to co-founder Steve Jobs. From the report: The company is readying a revamped MacBook Pro with a touch display for late 2026 or … ⌘ Read more

Sal Khan Will Become the Public Face of the TED Conference
The TED conference is changing hands, and education pioneer Sal Khan will be the new “vision steward” for the institution long headed by Chris Anderson. From a report: The move aims to ensure the future of the organization, while keeping it a not-for-profit entity. Khan, founder and CEO of Khan Academy, will be the public face of TED, with Logan McClure Davd … ⌘ Read more

Fossil Fuels To Dominate Global Energy Use Past 2050, McKinsey Says
Oil, gas and coal will continue to dominate the world’s energy mix well beyond 2050, as soaring electricity demand outpaces the shift to renewables, according to a new McKinsey report. From a report: McKinsey expects fossil fuels to account for about 41-55% of global energy consumption in 2050, down from today’s 64% but higher than previ … ⌘ Read more

Logitech Open To Adding an AI Agent To Board of Directors, CEO Says
Hanneke Faber, CEO of global tech manufacturing company Logitech, says she’d be open to the idea of having an AI-powered board member. From a report: “We already use [AI agents] in almost every meeting,” Faber said at the Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit in Washington, D.C., on Monday. While she said AI agents today (like Microsoft Copilot an … ⌘ Read more

IMF Warns About Soaring Global Government Debt
The IMF has issued a stark warning over soaring global government debt, saying it is on track to exceed 100% of GDP by 2029. Semafor: Such a ratio would be the highest since 1948, when large economies were rebuilding post-war. Today, “there is little political appetite for belt-tightening,” The Economist wrote: Rich nations are reluctant to raise taxes on their beleaguered electora … ⌘ Read more

‘China Has Overtaken America’
China now generates well over twice as much electricity as the United States. The country’s economy has become substantially larger than America’s in real terms, measured at purchasing power parity, economist Paul Krugman wrote this week. The Trump administration has moved aggressively against renewable energy development. It rolled back Biden’s tax incentives for renewables through the One Big Beautiful Bill. The ad … ⌘ Read more

South Korea Abandons AI Textbooks After Four-Month Trial
South Korea’s government has stripped AI-powered textbooks of their official status after a single semester of use. The textbooks were introduced in March for math, English, and computer science classes as a flagship initiative under former President Yoon Suk Yeol. Students and teachers complained about technical problems, factual inaccuracies, and increased wor … ⌘ Read more