Waymo Robotaxi Hits a Child Near an Elementary School in Santa Monica
A Waymo robotaxi struck a child near an elementary school in Santa Monica on January 23, according to the company. Waymo told the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) that the child – whose age and identity are not currently public – sustained minor injuries. TechCrunch: The NHTSA has opened an investigation into the … ⌘ Read more

Seven of the World’s Ten Best-Selling Smartphones in 2025 Were iPhones
Apple sold seven of the ten best-selling smartphones globally in 2025, a lopsided dominance that underscores how thoroughly the company controls the premium end of the mobile market.

The iPhone 16 was the single best-selling phone worldwide, and Apple’s presence extended all the way down to the tenth spot where the iPhone 16e – its … ⌘ Read more

Nothing CEO Says Company Won’t Launch New Flagship Smartphone Every Year ‘For the Sake of It’
Android smartphone maker Nothing won’t release a Phone 4 this year, the company’s founder and chief executive said, and that the 2025 Phone 3 will remain the brand’s flagship device throughout 2026.

“We’re not just going to churn out a new flagship every year for the sake of it, we want ev … ⌘ Read more

‘Hundreds’ of Gatik Robot Delivery Trucks Headed For US Roads
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Forbes: Gatik, a Silicon Valley startup developing self-driving delivery trucks, says its commercial operations are about to scale up dramatically, from fewer than a dozen driverless units running in multiple U.S. states now to hundreds of box trucks by the end of the year. CEO Gautam Narang said it’s also booked … ⌘ Read more

FBI Seizes RAMP Cybercrime Forum Used By Ransomware Gangs
joshuark shares a report from BleepingComputer: The FBI has seized the notorious RAMP cybercrime forum, a platform used to advertise a wide range of malware and hacking services, and one of the few remaining forums that openly allowed the promotion of ransomware operations. Both the forum’s Tor site and its clearnet domain, ramp4u[.]io, now display a seizure … ⌘ Read more

Brandon Sanderson’s Literary Fantasy Universe ‘Cosmere’ Picked Up by Apple TV
Apple TV+ has landed the screen rights to Cosmere, the sprawling literary universe created by Brandon Sanderson. “The first titles being eyed for adaptation are the Mistborn series, for features, and The Stormlight Archive series, for television,” reports the Hollywood Reporter. From the report: The deal is rare on … ⌘ Read more

Extremophile Molds Are Invading Art Museums
Scientific American’s Elizabeth Anne Brown recently “polled the great art houses of Europe” about whether they’d had any recent experiences with mold in their collections. Despite the stigma that keeps many institutions silent, she found that extremophile “xerophilic” molds are quietly spreading through museums and archives, thriving in low-humidity, tightly sealed storage and damagin … ⌘ Read more

Fully Electric Vehicle Sales In EU Overtake Petrol For First Time In December
Longtime Slashdot reader AmiMoJo shares a report from Reuters: Fully electric car sales in December overtook petrol for the first time in the European Union, even as policymakers proposed to loosen emissions regulations, data showed on Tuesday. U.S. battery-electric brand Tesla continued to lose market share to competito … ⌘ Read more

Kernel Community Drafts a Plan For Replacing Linus Torvalds
The Linux kernel community has formalized a continuity plan for the day Linus Torvalds eventually steps aside, defining how the process would work to replace him as the top-level maintainer. ZDNet’s Steven Vaughan-Nichols reports: The new “plan for a plan,” drafted by longtime kernel contributor Dan Williams, was discussed at the latest Linux Kernel Maint … ⌘ Read more

French Lawmakers Vote To Ban Social Media Use By Under-15s
French lawmakers have voted to ban social media access for children under 15 and prohibit mobile phones in high schools, positioning France as the second country after Australia to impose sweeping age-based digital restrictions. The Guardian reports: The lower national assembly adopted the text by a vote of 130 to 21 in a lengthy overnight session from Mon … ⌘ Read more

Software Company Bonds Drop As Investors’ AI Worries Mount
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: Investors are souring on the bonds of software companies that service industries ranging from automotive to finance as fast-paced artificial intelligence innovations threaten to upend their business models. […] Bond prices tumbled as advances in artificial intelligence rack up. Google announced plans to … ⌘ Read more

Apple Tells Patreon To Move Creators To In-App Purchase For Subscriptions
Apple is forcing Patreon to move all remaining creators onto Apple’s in-app purchase subscription system by November 2026 “or else Patreon would risk removal from the App Store,” reports TechCrunch. “Apple made this decision because Patreon was managing the billing for some percentage of creators’ subscriptions, and the tech gia … ⌘ Read more

Google Says AI Agent Can Now Browse on Users’ Behalf
Google is rolling out an “auto browse” AI agent in Chrome that can navigate websites, fill out forms, compare prices, and handle tedious online tasks on a user’s behalf. Bloomberg reports: The feature, called auto browse, will allow users to ask an assistant powered by Gemini to complete tasks such as shopping for them without leaving Chrome, said Charmaine D’Silva, a di … ⌘ Read more

US Cyber Defense Chief Uploaded Sensitive Files Into a Public Version of ChatGPT
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Politico: The interim head of the country’s cyber defense agency uploaded sensitive contracting documents into a public version of ChatGPT last summer, triggering multiple automated security warnings that are meant to stop the theft or unintentional disclosure of government m … ⌘ Read more

Amazon is Ending Its Palm ID System for Retail, Amazon One, as It Closes Physical Stores
Amazon is discontinuing its Amazon One palm recognition ID system for stores later this year, the company informed users. From a report: The company will discontinue Amazon One services at retail businesses on June 3, 2026, according to a support page for the service and email messages to customers. “I … ⌘ Read more

Urban Expansion in the Age of Liberalism
The housing shortages plaguing Western cities today stem partly from the abandonment of a 19th century urban governance model that enabled cities like Berlin, New York and Chicago to expand rapidly while keeping real house prices flat and homes increasingly affordable.

A new analysis by Works in Progress argues that Victorian-era urban management wasn’t laissez-faire but rather a system carefully … ⌘ Read more

Cancer Might Protect Against Alzheimer’s
For decades, researchers have noted that cancer and Alzheimer’s disease are rarely found in the same person, fuelling speculation that one condition might offer some degree of protection from the other. Nature: Now, a study in mice provides a possible molecular solution to the medical mystery: a protein produced by cancer cells seems to infiltrate the brain, where it helps to break apart clu … ⌘ Read more

Experian’s Tech Chief Defends Credit Scores: ‘We’re Not Palantir’
When asked directly whether people actually like Experian, Alex Lintner, the credit bureau’s CEO of Software and Technology, offered an unusual defense in an interview: “First of all, we’re not Palantir, so we don’t do reputation scores.” Speaking on The Verge’s podcast, Lintner conceded that consumers who have poor credit scores through “life’s circ … ⌘ Read more

There’s a Rash of Scam Spam Coming From a Real Microsoft Address
There are reports that a legitimate Microsoft email address – which Microsoft explicitly says customers should add to their allow list – is delivering scam spam. ArsTechnica: The emails originate from no-reply-powerbi@microsoft.com, an address tied to Power BI. The Microsoft platform provides analytics and business intelligence from various source … ⌘ Read more

Apple Sued by App Developer Over its Continuity Camera
An anonymous reader shares a report: Apple is being sued by Reincubate, which makes the Camo smartphone webcam app. It has filed a lawsuit against Apple in a U.S. federal court in New Jersey, accusing the company of anticompetitive conduct and patent infringement. The suit alleges that Apple copied Camo’s technology, integrated similar features into iOS, and used co … ⌘ Read more

Tim Berners-Lee Wants Us To Take Back the Internet
mspohr shares a report: When Sir Tim Berners-Lee invented the world wide web in 1989, his vision was clear: it would used by everyone, filled with everything and, crucially, it would be free. Today, the British computer scientist’s creation is regularly used by 5.5 billion people – and bears little resemblance to the democratic force for humanity he intended.

Since Berner … ⌘ Read more

What’s the ‘Best’ Month for New Movies and Music? A Statistical Analysis
An analysis of film and music release patterns has found that summer and late fall are the optimal windows for movie premieres, while the music industry has no clear “best” month – only a worst one, December, which the report’s author dubbed “Dump-cember.”

For films, the calendar splits into distinct strategic zones. Summer … ⌘ Read more

430,000-Year-Old Wooden Tools Are the Oldest Ever Found
Early hominins in Europe were creating tools from raw materials hundreds of thousands of years before Homo sapiens arrived there, two new studies indicate, pushing back the established time for such activity. From a report: The evidence includes a 500,000-year-old hammer made of elephant or mammoth bone, excavated in southern England, and 430,000-year-old wooden … ⌘ Read more

30,000 More UPS Jobs On the Chopping Block as Amazon Era Ends
UPS said today it plans to eliminate an additional 30,000 operational jobs this year as the shipping giant continues to wind down its partnership with Amazon – previously its largest customer – and push forward a broader turnaround strategy under CEO Carol Tome.

CFO Brian Dykes said on an earnings call that the cuts will be accomplished through attrition … ⌘ Read more

Android’s Full Desktop Mode Surfaces in Accidental Chromium Leak
A bug report filed on the Chromium Issue Tracker inadvertently exposed Google’s desktop Android interface for the first time, revealing a system codenamed “Aluminum OS” running on existing Chromebook hardware. The report, ostensibly about Chrome Incognito tabs, included screen captures from an HP Elite Dragonfly 13.5 Chromebook running Android 16.

The … ⌘ Read more

‘Clawdbot’ Has AI Techies Buying Mac Minis
An open-source AI agent originally called Clawdbot (now renamed Moltbot) is gaining cult popularity among developers for running locally, 24/7, and wiring itself into calendars, messages, and other personal workflows. The hype has gone so far that some users are buying Mac Minis just to host the agent full-time, even as its creator warns that’s unnecessary. Business Insider reports: Founded … ⌘ Read more

Amazon Cuts Another 16,000 Jobs
Amazon announced on Wednesday that it is eliminating approximately 16,000 roles across the company as part of organizational changes that began in October 2025 and are only now being finalized by certain teams. Senior Vice President Beth Galetti shared the news in a memo to employees, framing the reductions as an effort to reduce layers, increase ownership, and remove bureaucracy. The memo follows another memo that t … ⌘ Read more

Asteroid 2024 YR4 Has a 4% Chance of Hitting the Moon
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Universe Today: There’s a bright side to every situation. In 2032, the Moon itself might have a particularly bright side if it is blasted by a 60-meter-wide asteroid. The chances of such an event are still relatively small (only around 4%), but non-negligible. And scientists are starting to prepare both for the bad (massive r … ⌘ Read more

Ancient Martian Beach Discovered, Providing New Clues To Planet’s Habitability
alternative_right shares a report from Phys.org: New findings from NASA’s Perseverance rover have revealed evidence of wave-formed beaches and rocks altered by subsurface water in a Martian crater that once held a vast lake – considerably expanding the timeline for potential habitability at this ancient site. In an i … ⌘ Read more

Amazon Inadvertently Announces Cloud Unit Layoffs In Email To Employees
Amazon appears to have prematurely acknowledged layoffs inside AWS after an internal email referencing “organizational changes” and “impacted colleagues” was mistakenly sent to cloud employees. CNBC reports: “Changes like this are hard on everyone,” Colleen Aubrey, senior vice president of applied AI solutions at Amazon Web Services, wro … ⌘ Read more

US Government Lost More Than 10,000 STEM PhDs Last Year
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Science.org: Some 10,109 doctoral-trained experts in science and related fields left their jobs last year as President Donald Trump dramatically shrank the overall federal workforce. That exodus was only 3% of the 335,192 federal workers who exited last year but represents 14% of the total number of Ph.D.s in science, technol … ⌘ Read more

Apple Updates iOS 12 For the First Time Since 2023
Apple quietly released its first update to iOS 12 since 2023 to keep iMessage, FaceTime, and device activation working on older hardware through January 2027. The update applies to legacy devices like the iPhone 5S, iPhone 6/6 Plus, and 2013-era iPads. Macworld reports: The update appears to be related to a specific issue. According to Apple’s “About iOS 12 Updates” page, … ⌘ Read more

Scientists Launch AI DinoTracker App That Identifies Dinosaur Footprints
Scientists have released DinoTracker, a free AI-powered app that identifies dinosaur footprints by analyzing shape patterns rather than relying on potentially flawed historical labels. “When we find a dinosaur footprint, we try to do the Cinderella thing and find the foot that matches the slipper,” said Prof Steve Brusatte, a c … ⌘ Read more

SoundCloud Data Breach Impacts 29.8 Million Accounts
A data breach at SoundCloud exposed information tied to 29.8 million user accounts, according to Have I Been Pwned. While SoundCloud says no passwords or financial data were accessed, attackers mapped email addresses to public profile data and later attempted extortion. BleepingComputer reports: The company confirmed the breach on December 15, following widespread reports … ⌘ Read more

Supreme Court To Decide How 1988 Videotape Privacy Law Applies To Online Video
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: The Supreme Court is taking up a case on whether Paramount violated the 1988 Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA) by disclosing a user’s viewing history to Facebook. The case, Michael Salazar v. Paramount Global, hinges on the law’s definition of the word “consumer.” … ⌘ Read more

OpenAI Releases Prism, a Claude Code-Like App For Scientific Research
OpenAI has launched Prism, a free scientific research app that aims to do for scientific writing what coding agents did for programming. Engadget reports: Prism builds on Crixet, a cloud-based LaTeX platform the company is announcing it acquired today. For the uninitiated, LaTeX is a typesetting system for formatting scientific docume … ⌘ Read more

Amazon To Pay $309 Million To US Shoppers In Settlement Over Returns
Amazon has agreed to pay $309 million and provide additional remedies in a class-action settlement over claims that customers were wrongly denied refunds after returning items. Plaintiffs say (PDF) the deal delivers over $1 billion in total value, including more than $600 million in refunds and operational changes. Reuters reports: Amazon d … ⌘ Read more

Internal Messages May Doom Meta At Social Media Addiction Trial
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: This week, the first high-profile lawsuit – considered a “bellwether” case that could set meaningful precedent in the hundreds of other complaints – goes to trial. That lawsuit documents the case of a 19-year-old, K.G.M, who hopes the jury will agree that Meta and YouTube caused psychological … ⌘ Read more

Citigroup Mandates AI Training For 175,000 Employees To Help Them ‘Reinvent Themselves’
Citigroup has rolled out mandatory AI training for all 175,000 of its employees across 80 locations worldwide, a sweeping initiative that CEO Jane Fraser describes as helping workers “reinvent themselves” before the technology permanently alters what they do for a living.

The $205 billion bank sent out an in … ⌘ Read more

Mozilla is Building an AI ‘Rebel Alliance’ To Take on Industry Heavweights OpenAI, Anthropic
Mozilla, the nonprofit organization behind the Firefox browser that has spent two decades battling tech giants over control of the internet, is now turning its attention to AI and deploying roughly $1.4 billion in reserves to fund what president Mark Surman calls a “rebel alliance” of startups … ⌘ Read more

Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp To Test Premium Subscriptions
An anonymous reader shares a report: Meta plans to test new subscriptions that give people access to exclusive features on its apps, the company told TechCrunch on Monday. The tech giant said the new subscriptions will unlock more productivity and creativity, along with expanded AI capabilities.

In the coming months, Meta said it will offer a premium … ⌘ Read more

Android Phones Are Getting More Anti-Theft Features
An anonymous reader shares a report: Google on Tuesday announced an expanded set of Android theft-protection features, designed to make its mobile devices less of a target for criminals. Building on existing tools like Theft Detection Lock, Offline Device Lock, and others introduced in 2024, the newly launched updates include stronger authentication safeguards and enhanced … ⌘ Read more

France To Ditch US Platforms Microsoft Teams, Zoom For ‘Sovereign Platform’ Amid Security Concerns
France will replace the American platforms Microsoft Teams and Zoom with its own domestically developed video conferencing platform, which will be used in all government departments by 2027, the country said. From a report: The move is part of France’s strategy to stop using foreign … ⌘ Read more

Microsoft Was Routing Example-Domain Traffic To a Japanese Cable Company for Five Years
Microsoft has quietly suppressed an unexplained anomaly on its network that was routing traffic destined for example.com – a domain reserved under RFC2606 specifically for testing purposes and not obtainable by any party – to sei.co.jp, a domain belonging to Japanese electronics cable maker Sumitomo E … ⌘ Read more

Doomsday Clock Ticks To 85 Seconds Before Midnight, Its Closest Ever
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists on Tuesday set their symbolic Doomsday Clock to 85 seconds before midnight – the closest the timepiece has ever been to the theoretical point of annihilation since scientists created it during the Cold War in 1947.

The clock now stands four seconds nearer than last year’s setting, and this marks th … ⌘ Read more

Amazon To Shut Down All Amazon Go and Amazon Fresh Stores
Amazon is closing all of its Amazon Go and Amazon Fresh physical stores in a shift to focus on its online same-day delivery service and new big-box retail stores. From a report: The e-commerce giant said Tuesday that some of its shuttered Amazon-branded brick-and-mortar stores would be converted into Whole Foods Market locations. Amazon said its branded stores fail … ⌘ Read more

OpenAI’s Science Chief Says LLMs Aren’t Ready For Novel Discoveries and That’s Fine
OpenAI launched a dedicated team in October called OpenAI for Science, led by vice president Kevin Weil, that aims to make scientists more productive – but Weil admitted in an interview with MIT Technology Review that the LLM cannot yet produce novel discoveries and says that’s not currently the mission.

U … ⌘ Read more

Pinterest Cuts Up To 15% Jobs To Redirect Resources To AI
Pinterest said on Tuesday it would trim its workforce by less than 15% and reduce office space, as the social media company looks to reallocate resources to AI-focused roles and initiatives. From a report: The announcement comes as the company competes with TikTok and Meta-owned Facebook and Instagram for digital advertising budgets, as these platforms continue to d … ⌘ Read more

Samsung Galaxy Z Trifold Will Cost $2,900 in the US
Samsung said today that its Galaxy Z TriFold, the first tri-fold smartphone to ship in the U.S., will be available starting January 30 at a price point of $2,899 – substantially more expensive than any other phone on the U.S. market, including Samsung’s own $2,000 Galaxy Z Fold 7 and a fully loaded 2TB iPhone 17 Pro Max.

The company will only sell the device through its … ⌘ Read more

How Anthropic Built Claude: Buy Books, Slice Spines, Scan Pages, Recycle the Remains
Court documents unsealed last week in a copyright lawsuit against Anthropic reveal that the AI company ran an operation called “Project Panama” to buy millions of physical books, slice off their spines, scan the pages to train its Claude chatbot, and then send the remains to recycling companies.

The company spe … ⌘ Read more