Operation Bluebird Wants To Relaunch ‘Twitter’ For a New Social Network
A startup called Operation Bluebird is petitioning the US Patent and Trademark Office to strip X Corp of the “Twitter” and “tweet” trademarks, hoping to relaunch a new Twitter with the old brand, bird logo, and “town square” vibe. “The TWITTER and TWEET brands have been eradicated from X Corp.’s products, services, and marketing, effe … ⌘ Read more

Google Faces Fines Over Google Play If It Doesn’t Make More Concessions
EU regulators say Google’s Play Store changes still don’t meet fairness rules and are preparing a potentially hefty 2026 fine unless Google makes deeper concessions. Reuters reports: Google Play has been in the European Commission’s crosshairs since March, with regulators singling out technical restrictions preventing app developers … ⌘ Read more

India Proposes Charging OpenAI, Google For Training AI On Copyrighted Content
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: On Tuesday, India’s Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade released a proposed framework that would give AI companies access to all copyrighted works for training in exchange for paying royalties to a new collecting body composed of rights-holding organ … ⌘ Read more

Qualcomm Acquires RISC-V Chip Designer Ventana Micro Systems
Qualcomm has acquired RISC-V startup Ventana to strengthen its CPU ambitions beyond mobile, “reinforcing its commitment and leadership in the development of the RISC-V standard and ecosystem,” the company said in a press release. CRN Magazine reports: The San Diego-based company said Ventana’s expertise in RISC-V, a free and open alternative to the A … ⌘ Read more

Ubuntu Will Have Native AMD ROCm AI/ML and HPC Libraries In Next LTS Release
Longtime Slashdot reader MadCow42 writes: Canonical just announced that they’re packaging AMD’s ROCm libraries (for AIML and HPC with both data-center GPUs as well as desktop/laptop GPUs), directly into the Ubuntu Universe archive. You can run ROCm on Ubuntu today but you have to install it via a script from AMD and manuall … ⌘ Read more

Adobe Integrates With ChatGPT
Adobe is integrating Photoshop, Express, and Acrobat directly into ChatGPT so users can edit photos, design graphics, and tweak PDFs through the chatbot. The Verge reports: The Adobe apps are free to use, and can be activated by typing the name of the app alongside an uploaded file and conversational instruction, such as “Adobe Photoshop, help me blur the background of this image.” ChatGPT users won’t have to specify th … ⌘ Read more

Cable Channel Subscribers Grew For the First Time In 8 Years Last Quarter
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: On Monday, research analyst MoffettNathanson released its “Cord-Cutting Monitor Q3 2025: Signs of Life?” report. It found that the pay TV operators, including cable companies, satellite companies, and virtual multichannel video programming distributors (vMVPDs) like … ⌘ Read more

Wells Fargo CEO Says More Job Cuts Coming at the Bank as AI Prompts ‘Efficiency’
Wells Fargo expects more job cuts and higher severance costs in this quarter that ends in three weeks, bank CEO and President Charlie Scharf said Tuesday at an investors conference in New York. He’s also betting on AI to drive efficiency and, eventually, further workforce reduction.From a report: “As we’ve gone through th … ⌘ Read more

Democrats Warn Their Party May Try To Unravel Any Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery Deal
As the battle over Warner Bros. Discovery grows, two Democratic lawmakers are warning that their party may try to block or unravel any
acquisition by Paramount when it returns to power. Semafor: In a letter to the WBD board and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent first shared with Semafor, Reps. Sam Li … ⌘ Read more

Amazon Changes How Copyright Protection is Applied To Kindle Direct’s Self-Published Ebooks
Amazon says it will allow authors to offer their DRM-free ebooks in the EPUB and PDF formats through its self-publishing platform, Kindle Direct Publishing. Starting on January 20, 2026, authors who set their titles as DRM-free will see their books made available in these more open formats. Fro … ⌘ Read more

HDMI Forum Continues To Block HDMI 2.1 For Linux, Valve Says
New submitter emangwiro shares a report: The HDMI Forum, responsible for the HDMI specification, continues to stonewall open source. Valve’s Steam Machine theoretically supports HDMI 2.1, but the mini-PC is software-limited to HDMI 2.0. As a result, more than 60 frames per second at 4K resolution are only possible with limitations. In a statement to Ars T … ⌘ Read more

Meta’s New AI Superstars Are Chafing Against the Rest of the Company
Meta’s newly recruited AI “superstars” have developed an us-versus-them mentality against the company’s longtime executive leadership, creating internal friction over whether the team should focus on catching up to rivals like OpenAI and Google or improving Meta’s core advertising and social media businesses. Alexandr Wang, the 28-year-old … ⌘ Read more

Same Product, Same Store, but on Instacart, Prices Might Differ
A study this week has found that shoppers using Instacart are often charged different prices for identical products at the same store at the same time, even when selecting in-store pickup rather than delivery. The Groundwork Collaborative, a progressive policy group, and Consumer Reports organized nearly 200 volunteers across four cities to simultaneously … ⌘ Read more

Nvidia Builds Location Verification Tech That Could Track Where Its AI Chips End Up
Nvidia has developed location verification technology that could determine which country its AI chips are operating in, Reuters reports, citing a source, a capability that may help address ongoing concerns about the smuggling of advanced semiconductors to restricted markets like China. The feature, which Nvid … ⌘ Read more

AI Slop Ad Backfires For McDonald’s
McDonald’s has pulled an AI-generated Christmas commercial from YouTube after viewers pushed back on what they called a distasteful, “AI slop”-filled take on the holidays. The 45-second ad, titled “It’s the most terrible time of the year,” was a satirical look at holiday chaos – people tripping while carrying overloaded gift bags, getting tangled in lights, burning homemade cookies, starting kitchen fires – … ⌘ Read more

Rubio Orders Diplomats To Return To Using Times New Roman Font
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Tuesday ordered diplomats to return to using Times New Roman font in official communications, calling his predecessor Antony Blinken’s decision to adopt Calibri a “wasteful” diversity move, according to an internal department cable seen by Reuters. The department … ⌘ Read more

RoboCrop: Teaching Robots How To Pick Tomatoes
alternative_right quotes a report from Phys.org: To teach robots how to become tomato pickers, Osaka Metropolitan University Assistant Professor Takuya Fujinaga, Graduate School of Engineering, programmed them to evaluate the ease of harvesting for each tomato before attempting to pick it. Fujinaga’s new model uses image recognition paired with statistical analysis to evaluate … ⌘ Read more

In a Major New Report, Scientists Build Rationale For Sending Astronauts To Mars
A major scientific report published Tuesday argues that sending astronauts to Mars is justified by the quest to find life and conduct research that robots alone can’t achieve. “We’re searching for life on Mars,” said Dava Newman, a professor in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Massachusetts Insti … ⌘ Read more

‘Food and Fossil Fuel Production Causing $5 Billion of Environmental Damage an Hour’
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Guardian: The unsustainable production of food and fossil fuels causes $5 billion of environmental damage per hour, according to a major UN report. Ending this harm was a key part of the global transformation of governance, economics and finance required “before col … ⌘ Read more

OpenAI Joins the Linux Foundation’s New Agentic AI Foundation
OpenAI, alongside Anthropic and Block, have launched the Agentic AI Foundation under the Linux Foundation, describing it as a neutral home for standards as agentic systems move into real production. It may sound well-meaning, but Slashdot reader and NERDS.xyz founder BrianFagioli isn’t buying the narrative. In a report for NERDS.xyz, Fagioli writes: Ins … ⌘ Read more

Netflix Faces Consumer Class Action Over $72 Billion Warner Bros Deal
Netflix’s $72 billion bid to buy Warner Bros Discovery has triggered a consumer class action claiming the merger would crush competition, erase HBO Max as a rival, and hand Netflix control over major franchises. Reuters reports: The proposed class action (PDF) was filed on Monday by a subscriber to Warner Bros-owned HBO Max who said the p … ⌘ Read more

Ask Slashdot: What Are the Best Locally-Hosted Wireless Security Cameras?
Longtime Slashdot reader Randseed writes: With the likes of Google Nest, Ring, and others cooperating with law enforcement, I started to look for affordable wireless IP security cameras that I can put around my house. Unfortunately, it looks like almost every thing now incorporates some kind of cloud-based slop. All I really want i … ⌘ Read more

More People Crowdfunded Basic Needs In 2025, GoFundMe Report Shows
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Fast Company: More and more people are turning to GoFundMe for help covering the cost of housing, food, and other basic needs. The for-profit crowdfunding platform’s annual “Year in Help” report, released Tuesday, underscored ongoing concerns around affordability. The number of fundraisers started to he … ⌘ Read more

Congress Quietly Strips Right-To-Repair Provisions From US Military Spending Bill
Congress quietly removed provisions that would have let the U.S. military fix its own equipment without relying on contractors, despite bipartisan and Pentagon support. The Register reports: The House and Senate versions of the NDAA passed earlier both included provisions that would have extended common right-to-r … ⌘ Read more

Millions of Australian Teens Lose Access To Social Media As Ban Takes Effect
Australia’s world-first ban blocking under-16s from major social platforms has come into effect. The BBC is live reporting the reactions “both from within Australia and outside it.” From the report: I’ve been speaking to 12-year-old Paloma, who lives in Sydney and says she is “sad” about the ban. She spends between 30 minu … ⌘ Read more

Apple’s Slow AI Pace Becomes a Strength As Market Grows Weary of Spending
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: Shares of Apple were battered earlier this year as the iPhone maker faced repeated complaints about its lack of an artificial intelligence strategy. But as the AI trade faces increasing scrutiny, that hesitance has gone from a weakness to a strength – and it’s showing up in th … ⌘ Read more

2025 Will Be World’s Second or Third-Hottest Year on Record, EU Scientists Say
This year is set to be the world’s second or third-warmest on record, potentially surpassed only by 2024’S record-breaking heat, the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) said on Tuesday. From a report: The data is the latest from C3S following last month’s COP30 climate summit, where governments faile … ⌘ Read more

Microsoft 365 Prices Rising For Businesses and Governments in July 2026
Microsoft has announced that it will raise prices on its Microsoft 365 productivity suites for businesses and government clients starting in July 2026, marking the first commercial price increase since 2022. Small business and frontline worker plans face the steepest hikes: Business Basic jumps 16.7% to $7 per user per month, while fr … ⌘ Read more

The Inevitable Shape of Cheap Online Retail
Pinduoduo in China, Shopee in Southeast Asia, and Meesho in India operate in markets that could hardly be more different – an upper-middle-income industrial state, a stitched-together archipelago of under-banked economies, and a country where three-quarters of retail is unorganized and e-commerce penetration sits at about 7% – yet all three have landed on the same business model.

These pla … ⌘ Read more

How Pokemon Cards Became a Stock Market For Millennials
The Pokemon Trading Card Game has quietly transformed into something its creators never intended: a speculative asset class dominated by adults hunting for profit while children struggle to find a single pack on store shelves. The resale market has climbed so high that the latest set, Phantasmal Flames, had a rare Charizard illustration valued at more than $800 b … ⌘ Read more

Microsoft To Invest $17.5 Billion in India
Microsoft announced on Tuesday its largest-ever investment in Asia – $17.5 billion over four years starting in 2026 – to expand cloud and AI infrastructure across India, fund skilling programs, and support ongoing operations in the country. The commitment adds to a $3 billion investment the company announced in January 2025 that is on track to be spent by the end of 2026. A new hyperscale cloud … ⌘ Read more

What Happens When an ‘Infinite-Money Machine’ Unravels
Michael Saylor’s software company Strategy, formerly known as MicroStrategy, built a financial model that some observers called an “infinite-money machine” by stockpiling hundreds of thousands of bitcoins and issuing stock and debt to buy more, but that machine appears to be breaking down. The company’s stock peaked above $450 in mid-July and ended November at $177.18, … ⌘ Read more

Xbox Is Bleeding Out
Microsoft’s Xbox consoles were conspicuously absent from Black Friday’s winners, failing to crack the top three in U.S. sales during one of the retail calendar’s most important weeks. According to Circana analyst Mat Piscatella, the PlayStation 5 captured 47% of Black Friday week console sales ending November 29, followed by the Nintendo Switch 2 at 24% and – somewhat remarkably – the NEX Playground, a Kinect-like Android device … ⌘ Read more

The Rarest of All Diseases Are Becoming Treatable
In February, a six-month-old baby named KJ Muldoon became the first person ever to receive a CRISPR gene-editing treatment customized specifically for his unique genetic mutation, a milestone that researchers say marks a turning point in how medicine might approach the thousands of rare diseases that collectively affect 30 million Americans. Muldoon was born with a type of … ⌘ Read more

‘Colleges Oversold Education. Now They Must Sell Connection’
A tenured USC professor is arguing that universities need to fundamentally rethink their value proposition as AI rapidly closes the gap on human instruction and a loneliness epidemic grips the generation most likely to be sitting in their lecture halls. Eric Anicich, an associate professor at USC’s Marshall School of Business, wrote in the Los Angeles Times … ⌘ Read more

Microsoft Excel Turns 40, Remains Stubbornly Unkillable
Microsoft Excel, the 40-year-old spreadsheet application that helped establish personal computers as essential workplace tools and contributed to Microsoft’s current valuation of nearly $4 trillion, has weathered both the rise of cloud computing and the current AI boom largely unscathed. In its most recent quarter, commercial revenue for Microsoft 365 – the bundle i … ⌘ Read more

India’s Aviation Crisis Is All About Too Big to Tame
India’s dominant airline IndiGo has cancelled roughly 3,000 flights since last week after new pilot fatigue regulations collided with technical issues and the seasonal schedule shift, stranding more than half a million passengers and forcing aviation authorities to reverse course on the safety rules they had just implemented.

InterGlobe Aviation, IndiGo’s parent company, … ⌘ Read more

Science Journal Retracts Study On Safety of Monsanto’s Roundup
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Guardian: The journal Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology has formally retracted a sweeping scientific paper published in 2000 that became a key defense for Monsanto’s claim that Roundup herbicide and its active ingredient glyphosate don’t cause cancer. Martin van den Berg, the journal’s editor in chie … ⌘ Read more

Evidence That Humans Now Speak In a Chatbot-Influenced Dialect Is Getting Stronger
Researchers and moderators are increasingly concerned that ChatGPT-style language is bleeding into everyday speech and writing. The topic has been explored in the past but “two new, more anecdotal reports, suggest that our chatbot dialect isn’t just something that can be found through close analysis of data,” r … ⌘ Read more

Claude Code Is Coming To Slack
Anthropic is bringing Claude Code directly into Slack, letting developers spin up coding sessions from chat threads and automate workflows without leaving the app. TechCrunch reports: Previously, developers could only get lightweight coding help via Claude in Slack – like writing snippets, debugging, and explanations. Now they can tag @Claude to spin up a complete coding session using Slack context like bu … ⌘ Read more

Cold Case Inquiries Stall After Ancestry.com Revisits Policy For Users
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the New York Times: Since online genealogy services began operating, millions of people have sent them saliva samples in hopes of learning about their family roots and discovering far-flung relatives. These services also appeal to law enforcement authorities, who have used them to solve cold c … ⌘ Read more

193 Cybercrims Arrested, Accused of Plotting ‘Violence-As-a-Service’
Europol’s GRIMM taskforce has arrested nearly 200 people accused of running or participating in “violence-as-a-service” schemes where cybercrime groups recruit youth online for real-world attacks. “These individuals are groomed or coerced into committing a range of violent crimes, from acts of intimidation and torture to murder,” the European … ⌘ Read more

Nvidia Can Sell H200 Chips To China For 25% US Cut
The Trump administration will allow Nvidia to resume selling H200 chips to China, but only if the U.S. government takes a 25% cut. Axios reports: Trump said on Truth Social that he’ll allow Nvidia to sell H200 chips – the generation of chips before its current, more-advanced Blackwell lineup – to China, with the U.S. government pocketing a quarter of the revenue. He sa … ⌘ Read more

More Than 200 Environmental Groups Demand Halt To New US Datacenters
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Guardian: A coalition of more than 230 environmental groups has demanded a national moratorium on new datacenters in the U.S., the latest salvo in a growing backlash to a booming artificial intelligence industry that has been blamed for escalating electricity bills and worsening the climate cri … ⌘ Read more

Taiwan Cries Censorship As Government Bans Rednote
Longtime Slashdot reader hackingbear writes: Taiwan’s government has ordered a one-year block of a popular, mainland Chinese-owned social media app Xiaohongshu, also known as The Little RedNote, citing its failure to cooperate with authorities over fraud-related concerns. Taiwan’s Ministry of the Interior on Thursday cited Xiaohongshu’s, which does not have business presence … ⌘ Read more

IBM To Buy Confluent For $11 Billion To Expand AI Services
IBM is buying Confluent for $11 billion in a major push to own real-time data streaming infrastructure essential for enterprise AI workloads. It marks Big Blue’s biggest acquisition since Red Hat in 2019. Bloomberg reports: The AI boom has touched off billions of dollars in deals for businesses that build, train or leverage the technology, propelling the valu … ⌘ Read more

Firefox 146 Now Available With Native Fractional Scaling On Wayland
Firefox 146 has been released with native fractional scaling support on Wayland – finally giving Linux users crisp UI rendering. Other new additions include GPU process improvements on macOS, developer-focused CSS features, and broader access to Firefox Labs. Phoronix reports: Firefox 146 also now makes Firefox Labs available to all users, … ⌘ Read more

Meta Pledge To Use Less Personal Data For Ads Gets EU Nod, Avoids Daily Fines
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: Meta’s proposal to use less personal data for targeted advertising in its pay-or-consent model that will be rolled out next month won the approval of EU antitrust regulators on Monday, signaling the company will not face daily fines after all. […] The U.S. tech giant ha … ⌘ Read more

Lenovo’s Next Gaming Laptop May Have a Rollable OLED Screen That Stretches Ultrawide
Lenovo may be preparing to unveil a gaming laptop that uses rollable OLED technology to expand horizontally into an ultrawide 21:9 display, according to a Windows Latest report suggesting the device could appear at CES 2026 in January. The Lenovo Legion Pro Rollable would differ from the company’s existing T … ⌘ Read more

Social Media’s Relentless Shopping Machine Has Created an Army of Debt-Laden Buyers
The influencer economy that Goldman Sachs projects will reach nearly half a trillion dollars by 2027 depends on a less-examined population: the influenced, millions of people who find themselves accumulating debt and clutter after years of exposure to what amounts to a 24/7 digital infomercial.

Antoinette Hocb … ⌘ Read more