GM Reaches $220 Million Settlement Over Selling Drivers’ Private Data
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: General Motors will pay $220 million to 36 states to settle allegations that it illegally sold private driving behavior and location information to data brokers. As part of the settlement, GM must get drivers’ express consent before it collects or shares their driving and location data – … ⌘ Read more

UK Social Media Ban May Lock Out More Than 100,000 Teens Without ID
Under the UK’s planned social media ban, more than 100,000 British teenagers aged 16 and 17 could initially be locked out of social media because they lack a passport or driving license that may be needed as a fallback for age verification. The Guardian reports: Ofcom, the UK’s online watchdog, said about 150,000 16- to 17-year-olds do not ow … ⌘ Read more

Reddit Will Force Everyone to Log In
Reddit plans to require users to log in to browse the platform, ending its longstanding practice of allowing anonymous visitors to access posts and discussions. According to CEO Steve Huffman, a key reason behind the decision is to curb unauthorized scraping and automated traffic.

“This is a big change for Reddit, where we’ve allowed logged-out access to basically all of Reddit for the last two decad … ⌘ Read more

Binance Suffers Biggest Crypto Hack In History With $6.3 Billion Affected [UPDATE]
UPDATE 10/30/26: Binance has temporarily suspended customer withdrawals after suffering what investigators say is the biggest crypto hack in history. According to Binance CEO Yi He, the company estimates roughly $6.3 billion in funds were impacted, with roughly $3 billion in assets frozen on-chain so far. Rest assured … ⌘ Read more

The Tragedy of Losing Your Wikipedia Page
An anonymous reader quotes an excerpt from a Wired article that explores the often-contentious process of nominating pages for deletion when their subjects fail to meet the encyclopedia’s notability standards: What do you need to know – need to know – about Xavier Trudeau? The eldest son of former Canadian prime minister Justin, the teenage Trudeau has recently begun performing R&B under t … ⌘ Read more

First Wired XR Glasses Powered By Android XR
XREAL has launched the AURA, its first wired augmented reality glasses powered by Google’s Android XR platform. They feature transparent Micro-OLED displays, a 70-degree field of view, Gemini AI integration, and a Snapdragon Reality Elite processor. TechPowerUp reports: The device is built around a simple idea: your apps, screens, entertainment, and AI assistant should be able to come … ⌘ Read more

Proton CEO Is In ‘Full AI Psychosis’
According to 404 Media, Proton CEO Andy Yen is aggressively pushing AI adoption while fostering what workers describe as a culture of fear that discourages raising security concerns or challenging leadership. The investigation is based on interviews with eight current and one former Proton employees, as well as internal Slack chats, meeting recordings, and an AI manifesto written by the company’s CTO. Longti … ⌘ Read more

Polymarket Halted International Trading After Hackers Drained Accounts
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Wired: Trading has resumed on Polymarket’s flagship international platform after a hack that drained money from the wallets of some traders. A third-party vendor based in the United Kingdom was breached, not the prediction market’s website itself. Law enforcement in the UK have been notified of t … ⌘ Read more

Trump’s CTFC Steps In to Defend Kalshi As Utah Brings Criminal Charges Against Execs
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has sued Utah to defend its claimed exclusive authority over federally registered prediction markets, as the state files (PDF) 14 criminal charges against Kalshi and its co-founders for allegedly violating anti-gambling laws. The Verge reports: On Wednesday, Utah … ⌘ Read more

Multi-Billion Binance Hack Hitting Crypto Markets
Binance is investigating a potential hack after more than $2 billion in crypto was drained from one of its wallets into a new external account, with Blockaid estimating nearly $3.3 billion was moved.

“Our teams are aware of reports of a potential security issue and are actively investigating,” said Binance on X.

“User funds are safe,” said Binance founder CZ. “It does look like … ⌘ Read more

Patrick Stewart, ‘Star Trek’ Captain and ‘X-Men’ Superhero, Dies At 86
Slashdot readers Cpt_Kirks, eklektic, sconeu, and Vrallis share the unfortunate news of Patrick Stewart’s passing. Longtime spokesperson Kelly Bush Novak said Stewart died Wednesday at the age of 86 at his home in Los Angeles following “a brief and poignant journey with Alzheimer’s disease and Lewy body dementia.”

“He has been he … ⌘ Read more

Nvidia Chief Seen As Target of Chinese Spy Plot
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The New York Times: American spy agencies had gathered striking intelligence. A top executive at a Singapore-based data center company was under scrutiny for possibly steering advanced Nvidia A.I. chips to China. And now American officials had concluded that she was a Chinese intelligence asset (source paywalled; alternative source), funneling i … ⌘ Read more

Alphabet Heads For a $500 Billion Drop In Market Value
Yesterday, Google reported its Q3 results that showed searches made through its AI Mode generate less revenue than traditional search, even as overall search revenue grew 12% year over year to $63.25 billion. The news sent Alphabet shares plunging, with Bespoke Investment Group reporting that the stock is on track for its steepest post-earnings decline since the comp … ⌘ Read more

Canada to Join EU Network of Supercomputers
Canada is joining the European Union’s supercomputing network to give Canadian companies, startups, and researchers access to European computing resources for AI development. The partnership aims to strengthen AI cooperation and reduce dependence on US technology. Politico reports: The EU’s supercomputing network is run by the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking, an EU public-private vehicle with … ⌘ Read more

DoorDash Strikes $17 Billion Deal For US Rival Instacart
DoorDash has agreed to acquire Instacart for about $17 billion as it expands beyond restaurant delivery and deeper into the U.S. grocery market. The deal, expected to close in late 2027 or the first half of 2028, could face regulatory scrutiny over further consolidation in the delivery industry. Reuters reports: DoorDash has offered Instacart shareholders $65 per shar … ⌘ Read more

Reddit Is Getting a ‘For You’ Feed
Reddit is overhauling its homepage with separate “For You” and “Following” feeds, with the former combining posts from subscribed communities and algorithmic recommendations based on users’ interests and activity. The Verge reports: It’s a big shift for the platform, but not an entirely surprising one, as Reddit hasn’t been shy about wanting to switch up the homepage. Earlier this year, the company announce … ⌘ Read more

‘Please Let the Internet Die’
Slashdot reader fjo3 shares an article from Wired: The internet must be put out of its misery. Any rational observer can admit that the current iteration of the web – and the social fabric woven there – is not what they signed up for. Symptoms of advanced cultural decay can no longer be ignored. This thing is eating itself. Giants including Meta and Google have been forced to settle massive consumer lawsuits brought … ⌘ Read more

Google Struggling to Make AI Mode Searches Pay
Alphabet shares fell nearly 10% after Google disclosed that searches through its AI Mode generate less revenue than traditional search, even as overall search revenue grew 12% year over year to $63.25 billion. The Register reports: Alphabet on Wednesday reported its Q3 results, which included news that its year-over-year search query growth rate is the highest it’s been in the last … ⌘ Read more

Ink Droplets In Motion Snag Top Prize In Nikon Small World Contest
A 25-year-old German photographer won the 2026 Nikon Small World competition with a microscopic image freezing ink droplets in midair as an inkjet printer deposits them onto paper. Ars Technica reports that Ole Bielfeldt “beat out 1,802 other entries hailing from 69 different countries.” From the report: Bielfeldt became interested in photomicrogr … ⌘ Read more

Bank of America Kindly Asks That You Don’t Share Your Password With Your AI Assistant
Longtime Slashdot reader schwit1 shares a report from TechCrunch: In an email blast to customers titled “Protecting your finances in the Al World,” Bank of America urged customers to never share their username and password with another person or an outside service, “including an Al-enabled tool or agent tha … ⌘ Read more

Anthropic Engineer Declares the Coding Interview Dead
An Anthropic engineering manager says he has stopped using traditional coding interviews because AI can now outperform candidates on the kinds of programming challenges they typically contain. “There’s no more point in giving you a little React challenge than there is in quizzing people about assembly; Claude is now better at both,” said Felix Rieseberg in a blog post. “Ou … ⌘ Read more

Massive Leak Exposes 41,000 Homeland Security Workers
A massive leak has exposed records tied to more than 41,000 DHS employees and contractors, including roughly 10,000 ICE personnel. The data, reportedly taken from DHS’s Okta login system, reveals phone numbers, email and office addresses, reporting relationships, and permission groups associated with undercover operations, wiretapping and surveillance tools. Wired repor … ⌘ Read more

Amazon Puts a Camera In Its Echo Studio So Alexa Can See
Amazon has added a camera to its Echo Studio speaker, allowing Alexa to visually identify objects, help with tasks and remotely monitor a room. For those concerned about privacy, Amazon is keeping a camera-free version available. The Next Web reports: The camera speaker ships today for $249.99. Hold up a board game box and Alexa can explain the rules, or show it a … ⌘ Read more

Are AI Execs Too Out of Touch To Build For the General Public?
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Former Yahoo CEO and early Google engineer Marissa Mayer is catching a lot of flak for how she uses AI. In an interview about her new app Dazzle, an AI assistant that learns from your camera roll, Mayer poses what she believes is an impressive flex for the product: It helped her come up with three bullet … ⌘ Read more

Amazon Finds ‘Tokenmaxxing’ Lacks Productivity Gains
Ancient Slashdot reader Gilmoure shares a report from Tom’s Hardware, adding: “Huh. Looks like consuming one’s own slop does not turn the wheels of industry.” From the report: Amazon wants its engineers to quit chasing token counts, warning that heavy AI usage does not automatically mean better work. In updated engineering guidelines published on October 27, the company l … ⌘ Read more

Apple Announces Its First Touchscreen MacBook Pro
Apple has unveiled its first touchscreen MacBook Pro, reversing a position the company held for more than 15 years that touchscreens were poorly suited for laptops. 9to5Mac reports: The new machine features a light-up Apple logo, tandem OLED, and touch input on the display. It runs on the M5 Pro and M5 Max chips, like the existing MacBook Pro models without OLED touch dis … ⌘ Read more

EMACS Turns 50
“EMACS, the mother of all editors, turns 50!” writes Slashdot reader dr_jerry, sharing a report from MIT Technology Review: Programming used to be a very different experience from the one we know today. In fact, the first programmers didn’t write code at all; the six women who worked on the ENIAC, one of the world’s first computers, at the University of Pennsylvania in 1946 did it by physically configuring switches, cables, and plugboards.

A … ⌘ Read more

FCC Approves Amazon Leo’s $11.5 Billion Acquisition of Globalstar
The FCC has approved (PDF) Amazon Leo’s $11.5 billion acquisition of satellite operator Globalstar, giving the Starlink rival additional infrastructure and spectrum to expand into direct-to-device satellite connectivity. Engadget reports: You may not know Globalstar but have possibly used its services, as the company provides Apple’s emergency … ⌘ Read more

Google Begins Certifying Registered App Stores For Android
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Running an app ecosystem has gotten a lot more complex for Google after its loss in the Epic Games antitrust case. While U.S. users can access app stores in Google Play by court order, international users will use Google’s voluntary Registered App Stores program. Google has announced that stores wishing … ⌘ Read more

Astronomers May Have Just Discovered Our Solar System’s Sixth Dwarf Planet
Astronomers using the Vera C. Rubin Observatory have discovered 2026 ED138, a large object beyond Neptune that could become the solar system’s sixth recognized dwarf planet if further observations confirm it is massive enough to be round. Located about 46 times farther from the Sun than Earth, the object is estimated to be 60 … ⌘ Read more

CDC Warns of Rising Threat of Drug-Resistant Germs
The CDC estimates that 19 drug-resistant pathogens cause 9.7 million infections and more than 50,000 deaths annually in the U.S., with resistance continuing to outpace development of new treatments. “The agency considers this problem to be one of our most urgent public health threats,” reports NBC News. From the report: The report is the CDC’s first comprehensive assessm … ⌘ Read more

Greenhouse Gas Levels Set Records In 2025, UN Says
An anonymous reader quotes a report from CBS News: Greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere rose to record highs in 2025, locking in climate impacts that will persist for centuries, the United Nations said on Tuesday. Levels of the three main greenhouse gases – the climate-warming carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide – all rose to unprecedented figures in 2025, … ⌘ Read more

Ford’s Most Affordable EV Will Offer Built-In Bidirectional Home Charging
Ford’s upcoming $28,350 Fathom electric truck will include a built-in inverter capable of supplying up to 10 kW of AC power to a home, bringing bidirectional charging to a significantly cheaper EV. Owners will still need additional Ford home hardware for features like outage backup and peak-rate energy management, but the com … ⌘ Read more

Growing List of Firms Object to OKX-ICE Tokenized Stock Plans
Intel, Oracle, IBM and IonQ have joined a growing list of companies objecting to having tokenized versions of their shares traded through OKX and Intercontinental Exchange’s blockchain venture, bringing the total number of objections to 26. About 37% of the companies on OKXICE’s original list have now opted out, according to CoinDesk. From the report: … ⌘ Read more

Code-Execution Flaw In UEFI Firmware Threatens Most Servers On Planet Earth
Ars Technica’s Dan Goodin reports: Defenders across the world face the burden of responding to yet another botched code-execution vulnerability, this time in boot-time firmware used by most of the world’s server vendors and data centers. The vulnerability, with a severity rating of 9.5 out of 10, resides in the TianoCore EDK I … ⌘ Read more

Google’s Genie 4 World Model Adds Audio, More Realistic Worlds
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Google DeepMind released its newest world model, Genie 4, in research preview on Tuesday. The latest model generates the most photorealistic and interactive worlds yet, allowing users to type prompts mid-simulation to change the scene. The model also generates real-time audio that matches the simulat … ⌘ Read more

Anduril Partners With Qualcomm to Build Laptops On US Soil
Longtime Slashdot reader fadethepolice writes: Anduril, arguing that its manufacturing capabilities are directly applicable to laptop manufacturing, is starting a project for a fully 100% U.S.-sourced laptop. The computer will use a Qualcomm Snapdragon SoC. I did not see any information about the OS, but I’m assuming that, given the type of processor, this w … ⌘ Read more

Apple’s Foldable iPhone Duo Draws Early Complaints of the Screen Cracking
Apple has acknowledged an inner-display defect affecting a small number of its new $1,999 iPhone Duo foldables after customers reported hearing a crunch while unfolding the device before cracks, lines and other display failures appeared along the crease. Apple is replacing affected phones and investigating the problem.

iFixi … ⌘ Read more

Cybersecurity CEO Indicted For Allegedly Scamming Millions From Ransomware Victims
An anonymous reader quotes a report from ProPublica: A Florida man who was the subject of a 2019 investigation by ProPublica was indicted last month on federal charges that he defrauded clients of his ransomware data recovery firm. According to the Justice Department, the man, Zohar Pinhasi, told customers he cou … ⌘ Read more

Apple Updates MacBook Pro With M6 Chips
Ahead of the touchscreen MacBook Pro expected to debut tomorrow, Apple has refreshed its standard 14-inch MacBook Pro with the new M6 processor, promising up to 20% faster multithreaded performance, improved power efficiency, and more powerful on-device AI capabilities. The Verge reports: Announced this morning through a press release, the new 14-inch MacBook Pro features three Thunder 4 USB-C … ⌘ Read more

In China, the AI Bubble Has Already Burst
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: While global tech stocks teeter, in China they have already crashed as lofty valuations collapse under worries about AI demand and curbs on Chinese exports. The meltdown, tanking the mainland STAR50 index of AI and semiconductor leaders by 40% in less than four months and vaporizing some $480 billion in market value, is an ill omen for wobbly world … ⌘ Read more

Denmark Gives Up On Replacing Microsoft Office With Collabora
Denmark’s Ministry of Digitization reportedly abandoned a pilot to replace Microsoft Office with the open-source Collabora suite less than six months after it began. Tom’s Hardware reports: According to Danish publication Computerworld, the pilot project was launched in 2025 and involved 38 employees, all of whom would start using the British open-sour … ⌘ Read more

Industry Executives Knew For Decades That Microplastics Were Infiltrating the Human Body
Susanne Rust of the Los Angeles Times reports (paywalled) that industry executives knew for decades that microplastics were infiltrating the human body. Slashdot reader joshuark shares an excerpt from the report: Scientists today say we’re just beginning to understand the harm that the tiny bits … ⌘ Read more

US Designates Helium As a Critical Material
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Associated Press: The U.S. designated helium as a critical material on Friday because it’s indispensable for making semiconductors that are essential to energy generation, and the global supply is at risk of disruption, according to the Energy Department. The designation by the Energy Department means that more federal financing will be availab … ⌘ Read more

PHP2Shell Security Flaws Now Successfully Exploited
The critical PHP2Shell vulnerabilities (CVE-2026-109618 and CVE-2026-109619) have now been successfully exploited in the wild, just days after patches were released and initial exploitation attempts failed. BleepingComputer reports: The malicious activity was caught by Adel Karimi, detection and response lead at Perplexity, whose honeypots recorded evidence of confirmed re … ⌘ Read more

Skydance Offers Buyouts, Gives 5-Day RTO Order
Skydance, as it begins integrating Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery, is offering voluntary buyouts to some employees and imposing a five-day-a-week office requirement. Layoffs are also expected as the company targets more than $6 billion in annualized cost savings within three years. Variety reports: The new program was outlined by chairman and CEO David Ellison and co-CEO Ynon Kreiz … ⌘ Read more

Firefox Tries to Bring Back the Internet’s ‘Good Old Days’
Mozilla launched a new ad campaign for Firefox that leverages early internet nostalgia in a bid to win back users who switched browsers. “Today’s internet tracks you, interrupts you, and asks for permissions it already took. But it wasn’t always that way, and it’s not how it’s supposed to work,” writes Mozilla CEO Anthony Enzor-DeMeo in a post on LinkedIn. “It’ … ⌘ Read more

Instagram Chases YouTube With a Push For Longer, Widescreen Videos
Instagram is testing a new longform, horizontal video format called “Features” as it pushes further into YouTube territory and expands its presence on TVs. The Verge reports: Instagram boss Adam Mosseri has been against doing longform video on the platform “for a long time,” he says in a six-and-a-half-minute video (here’s the widescr … ⌘ Read more

Walter Koenig, Chekov On Original ‘Star Trek,’ Dies At 90
Longtime Slashdot reader schwit1 shares a report from CBS News: Walter Koenig, the actor who played Pavel Chekov in the original “Star Trek” series and several movies, has died, his rep confirmed to CBS News. He was 90. Koenig died Sunday night at his home in the North Hollywood neighborhood of Los Angeles, talent rep Zachery McGinnis said in a statement. … ⌘ Read more

Highway Thieves Are Spoofing GPS To Steal Millions In Data Center-Bound Cargo
Highway thieves have stolen more than $100 million in data center equipment since June, employing increasingly sophisticated tactics such as forging driver IDs and spoofing GPS tracking systems. NBC News (paywalled) reports that thieves have “made away with more than $100 million in data center freight.” Ars Technica repo … ⌘ Read more