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

Apple Updates the iPad Mini With a Larger OLED Display
Apple has unveiled a redesigned iPad Mini with a larger 8.5-inch OLED display, an A20 Pro chip, twice the peak brightness and slimmer bezels while maintaining roughly the same footprint. It starts at $699 ($200 more than its predecessor) and will be available November 6. The Verge reports: Despite having a slightly bigger display than the 8.3-inch screen on its pre … ⌘ Read more

Microsoft Offers Mass Buyouts For Roughly a Quarter of Its Workforce
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Seattle Times: Microsoft is offering buyouts to about 60,000 employees, or roughly a quarter of its workforce, as the company tries to control its head count while avoiding layoffs. The Redmond-based tech giant announced Monday morning that eligible employees at the vice president level and below in … ⌘ Read more

Anthropic Files For IPO
Anthropic has filed to go public on the Nasdaq under the ticker ANT, setting the stage for a potentially record-setting IPO that could value the Claude developer at more than $2 trillion. Alongside the extraordinary cost of its AI expansion, Anthropic warned that it “may not generate sufficient revenue to achieve or sustain profitability in the future.”

“While we have experienced significant revenue growth in recent periods, our bu … ⌘ Read more

Reddit’s Largest Open Source Community Dumbfounded By AI Ban: ‘I Guess Linux Is No Longer Allowed?’
Kotaku reports:

r/opensource, Reddit’s primary “subreddit for everything open source related,” has banned all AI-assisted and AI-related projects…. As reported by The Verge, the subreddit’s October 24 post, titled “Your tokens aren’t valuable: No more AI,” features four new main … ⌘ Read more

Amazon Deforestation Fell To Lowest Level Since 1988 - And Silva Wins Reelection
Brazil’s 80-year-old president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was re-elected Sunday, reports the Guardian, “defeating his far-right opponent, Flávio Bolsonaro, to claim a historic fourth term in power.”

And the results could impact the climate, suggests the Associated Press, since under da Silva the annual deforestation … ⌘ Read more

Microsoft Announces Open Source Tool Evaluating Your Software’s Optimization For AI Coding Agents
The problem? Understanding how AI coding agents interact with the software you build. “Whether you’re maintaining an SDK, building a command-line interface, or publishing an MCP server or skills… you need to understand whether agents can discover and use what you ship, and what yo … ⌘ Read more

25% of Incoming Pull Requests May Be AI Slop, Finds Study From Linux Foundation Research
“59% of maintainers report growing contribution volume since the rise of GenAI,” according to a new study published by Linux Foundation Research. But 25% of their incoming pull requests “are estimated to be low-quality, also known as ‘AI slop’.” And on large projects, 69% see growing contributions — a … ⌘ Read more

Systemd Merges Support for Rust Programs
“As of today in systemd Git it’s now possible for the systemd programs to be written in the Rust programming language as an alternative to C,” reports Phoronix:

Core systemd code like the systemd library doesn’t yet support Rust code, but for the various systemd programs / leaf components there is now support for using Rust… The new systemd-keyring-setup utility in Rust is used for provisi … ⌘ Read more

AI Use Convinces California Math Professor There’s ‘No Point’ Grading Homework
From the student newspaper at the University of California, Berkeley:

Richard Borcherds, a UC Berkeley professor and Fields medalist, no longer grades his students’ homework. After seeing how many of his students used AI to consistently receive top scores, he felt there was “no point” in paying readers to grade for correc … ⌘ Read more

A Newly Proposed Linux Filesystem Can Fix Corrupted Data
BeamFS creator Aurelien Desbrieres is not calling for a merge, but is requesting feedback on an 18-patch proposal that takes the place of FTRFS, an earlier filesystem he proposed in April.

The Linux/Open Source blog It’s FOSS reports:

Filesystems that can repair damage, like Btrfs and ZFS, usually do it by falling back on a spare copy of the data. BeamFS skip … ⌘ Read more

AI Delivers ‘Zero Financial Payoff’ To Most Companies, Economist Says
“Despite massive investments and widespread hype around AI , the technology has delivered zero financial payoff to corporate America outside of tech,” writes the chief economist at U.S. asset management firm Apollo Global.

He adds that “there are still no signs of AI boosting productivity growth… [M]ainstream corporate America is pulling b … ⌘ Read more

Google Says Gmail and Photos Data Shared with AI Search Could Be Used for Targeted Ads
The blog Android Authority offers this TLDR:

Google updated its privacy policy to clarify that it could use information shared through Personal Intelligence to personalize ads. Gmail, Drive, and Photos content isn’t used for targeted ads by default, but connecting them to eligible Google services could … ⌘ Read more

Free Software Foundation Hosts Free ‘Encryptfest’ Event on Sunday
The Free Software Foundation’s “EncryptFest” today covers both encryption and privacy. The free two-hour event runs from 13:00-15:00 Eastern Daylight Time (17:00-19:00 UTC), and includes:

— A discussion on “bulk surveillance, and how encryption protects personal privacy”
— A short video from renowned cryptographer Bruce Schneier.
— A discussio … ⌘ Read more

As eMudhra Exits Cert Business, Users Face New PKI Trust Decisions
“As of 2026, the company has issued more than 60 million digital certificates,” notes Wikipedia. But now, InfoWorld reports:

A certificate authority’s decision to abandon the global SSL/TLS market is exposing a weakness many organizations rarely examine: their dependence on complex PKI trust chains. Following the compromise of private keys behi … ⌘ Read more

Getty Images Files For US Bankruptcy, Advances Restructuring Plan
Reuters reports:

Last week, Getty announced plans to file for bankruptcy, marking a major reset after its planned merger with rival Shutterstock collapsed under the weight of heavy debt and growing competition from AI-generated imagery. Getty said the affiliates of the Getty family and Koch Equity Development, which committed to provide up to $533 m … ⌘ Read more

Old Blood Cells Have Been Transformed Into Brain Stem Cells That Get Younger
“Scientists have transformed old blood cells into young brain stem cells, which continued to grow younger as they grew older,” reports ScienceAlert:

Cellular transformations can be done in two main ways. The first, more circuitous route turns a specific cell back into a pluripotent stem cell, or an embryonic “blank slat … ⌘ Read more

CIOs Admit They Are Being Forced To Upgrade Enterprise IT
Computer Weekly reports:

A Censuswide survey of 2,018 CIOs and senior IT decision-makers at large organisations in the US and UK for independent software maintenance provider Origina has found that organisations spend almost $13m on upgrades pushed by IT providers. On average, 28% of enterprise software budgets go on upgrades, migrations and licensing changes d … ⌘ Read more

America’s Defense Department Is Building an ‘Elite New Tech Sabotage Agency’
America’s Defense Department “has spent months quietly building an elite new tech agency,” reports Politico, “to help covertly disrupt and sabotage foreign technology programs considered threats to American military superiority.”

Information on the Technology Support Office, or TSO as it is called internally, is nearly impos … ⌘ Read more

Singapore Boffins Weave a GUI Into Fabric
Researchers at the National University of Singapore have developed a machine-washable electronic fabric that can turn clothing into an interactive graphical user interface. The prototype reportedly survived 50 gentle machine washes and 1,000 bending cycles, though it still relies on external batteries and controllers. The Register reports: The development could lead - at some point - to a “f … ⌘ Read more

People Are Vibe Coding Their Way to Better TVs
Frustrated by intrusive ads, sluggish interfaces, and data tracking, smart TV owners are using AI coding tools and open-source projects to strip unwanted software from their televisions and build customized home screens. The Verge reports: Several vibe-coded TV-debloating projects exploded in popularity over the weekend. Cleanyourtv (known as tv-vibehack until the 19th), t … ⌘ Read more

Greece Enacts Social Media Ban For Kids Under 15
Greece has passed a law banning children under 15 from social media platforms beginning January 1, 2027. The legislation requires platforms to implement reliable age verification and parents to use government-backed apps to restrict access, with penalties for noncompliance under the EU’s Digital Services Act. Engadget reports: “It would have been very easy to do absolutely noth … ⌘ Read more

SpaceX In Talks to Access 80,000 Cell Sites For New Network
SpaceX is reportedly seeking access to at least 80,000 cellular tower sites across the U.S. as it prepares to launch Starlink Mobile as a fourth nationwide wireless carrier. “We will be building out our terrestrial networks so there’s broad-based connectivity anywhere that SpaceX and Starlink are allowed to operate,” Musk said during SpaceX’s earnings cal … ⌘ Read more

Knicks Sent Employees Fake Offer of Championship Rings In Phishing Test
The New York Knicks reportedly sent employees a fake offer of complimentary NBA championship rings as part of an internal phishing test, requiring anyone who clicked the link to attend mandatory cybersecurity training. “Congratulations, your Employee Championship Ring is here,” the email said. According to The New York Times, Madison S … ⌘ Read more

Left Alone With Nothing To Do, AI Agents Started Playing
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: AI agents left to explore a virtual island without a specific task began inventing challenges of their own. MIT researchers say the behavior bears the hallmarks of play. The researchers put 13 AI agents called Eko, each running on Claude Opus 4.7, alone on a simulated desert island for 30 hours. They describe the ex … ⌘ Read more

Microsoft Announces Per-Hour Cost for Xbox Cloud Gaming Service
Microsoft has revealed pay-as-you-go pricing for Xbox Cloud Gaming, with introductory packages costing $3.99 for 10 hours, $7.99 for 25 hours, or $11.99 for 50 hours. Starting in November, Game Pass subscribers will receive only 5 to 15 included cloud-gaming hours depending on their tier and will have to buy additional time – even to stream games … ⌘ Read more

Ukraine Is Wiping Out Data Centers Across the Border
Ukrainian drone strikes have damaged three major Yandex data centers as well as facilities serving Sberbank and VKontakte (the country’s equivalent to Facebook), disrupting cloud services, banking, e-commerce, ride-hailing and other digital services across Russia. The attacks may deal a longer-lasting blow to Russia’s AI ambitions: Yandex’s affected facilities housed it … ⌘ Read more

Comcast Loses More Customers, Claims Other ISPs’ Cheap Prices Are ‘Irrational’
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Comcast reportedly plans significant job cuts in its cable division as the firm continues to lose residential broadband and TV customers. Comcast lost 144,000 residential broadband customers in Q3 2026, up from a 91,000-customer loss in the same quarter a year ago, the … ⌘ Read more