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
Astronomers Finally Explain How Molecules From Earth’s Atmosphere Keep Winding Up On the Moon
An anonymous reader shared this report from CNN:
Particles from Earth’s atmosphere have been carried into space by solar wind and have been landing on the moon for billions of years, mixing into the lunar soil, according to a new study [published in the journal Nature Communications Ea … ⌘ Read more
China Builds ‘Hypergravity’ Machine 2,000X Stronger Than Earth
Long-time Slashdot reader schwit1 shared this report from Futurism:
China has unveiled an extremely powerful “hypergravity machine” that can generate forces almost two thousand times stronger than Earth’s regular gravity.
The futuristic-looking machine, called CHIEF1900, was constructed at China’s Centrifugal Hypergravity and Interdisciplinary Exper … ⌘ Read more
How Much Do AI Models Resemble a Brain?
At the AI safety site Foom, science journalist Mordechai Rorvig explores a paper presented at November’s Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing conference:
[R]esearchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and Georgia Tech revisited earlier findings that showed that language models, the engines of commercial AI chatbots, sh … ⌘ Read more
2026’s Breakthrough Technologies? MIT Technology Review Chooses Sodium-ion Batteries, Commercial Space Stations
As 2026 begins, MIT Technology Review publishes “educated guesses” on emerging technologies that will define the future, advances “we think will drive progress or incite the most change — for better or worse — in the years ahead.”
This year’s list incl … ⌘ Read more
Predator Spyware Turns Failed Attacks Into Intelligence For Future Exploits
In December 2024 the Google Threat Intelligence Group published research on the code of the commercial spyware “Predator”. But there’s now been new research by Jamf (the company behind a mobile device management solution) showing Predator is more dangerous and sophisticated than we realized, according to SecurityWeek.
Long-ti … ⌘ Read more
My mate and I went on a hike earlier. Yesterday, we had lovely 12°C. But today, it was down to at most 4°C. Oh well. At least the sun was out and and there was just a tiny bit of wind. We knew upfont that scarf, beanie and gloves were mandatory. Especially at the more windy sections like up top the hills. The view was absolutely terrible, but we made the best of it.
With the sun shining on us during our lunch break at a forest edge bench, we still enjoyed the lookout in 01. I brought some old carpet scraps to sit on and was happily surprised that they isolated even better than I had hoped for. Some hot tea helped us staying warm.
After five hours we returned just after sunset. I’m quite tired now, completely out of shape.
To Pressure Security Professionals, Mandiant Releases Database That Cracks Weak NTLM Passwords in 12 Hours
Ars Technica reports:
Security firm Mandiant [part of Google Cloud] has released a database that allows any administrative password protected by Microsoft’s NTLM.v1 hash algorithm to be hacked in an attempt to nudge users who continue using the deprecated function … ⌘ Read more
Two More Offshore Wind Projects in the US Allowed to Continue Construction
Friday a federal judge “cleared U.S. power company Dominion Energy to resume work on its Virginia offshore wind project.” But a U.S. federal judge also ruled Thursday that another major offshore wind farm is allowed to resume construction, reports the Hill. “The project, which would supply power to New York, was one of five th … ⌘ Read more
Dozens of US Colleges Close as Falling Birth Rate Pushes Them Off Enrollment Cliff
A new article from Bloomberg says dozens of America’s colleges “succumbed to a fundamental problem killing colleges across the US: not enough students. The schools will award their final degrees this spring, stranding students not yet ready to graduate and forcing faculty and staff to hunt for new jobs.”
The co … ⌘ Read more
NASA Livestreams the Rocket That Will Carry Four Astronauts Around the Moon
“A mega rocket set to take astronauts around the Moon for the first time in decades is being taken to its launch pad,” the BBC reported this morning.
NASA is livestreaming their move of the 11-million-pound “stack” — which includes the Artemis II Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and the Orion spacecraft secured to it, al … ⌘ Read more
What Happened After Security Researchers Found 60 Flock Cameras Livestreaming to the Internet
A couple months ago, YouTuber Benn Jordan “found vulnerabilities in some of Flock’s license plate reader cameras,” reports 404 Media’s Jason Koebler. “He reached out to me to tell me he had learned that some of Flock’s Condor cameras were left live-streaming to the open internet.”
This led … ⌘ Read more
T2/Linux Brings a Flagship KDE Plasma Linux Desktop to RISC-V and ARM64
After “a decade of deep focus on embedded and server systems,” T2 SDE Linux “is back to the Desktop,” according to its web site, calling the new “T2 Desktop” flavour “ready for everyday home and office use!”
Built on the latest KDE Plasma, systemd, and Wayland, the new T2 Desktop flavour delivers a modern, clean, and performant exp … ⌘ Read more
As US Officials Showed Off a Self-Driving Robo-Bus - It Got Hit By a Tesla Driver
An anonymous reader shared this report from the Washington Post:
The U.S. Department of Transportation brought an automated bus to D.C. this week to showcase its work on self-driving vehicles, taking officials from around the country on a ride between agency headquarters at Navy Yard and Union Station. One of th … ⌘ Read more
Nearly 5 Million Accounts Removed Under Australia’s New Social Media Ban
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the New York Times: Nearly five million social media accounts belonging to Australian teenagers have been deactivated or removed, a month after a landmark law barring those younger than 16 from using the services took effect, the government said on Thursday. The announcement was the first re … ⌘ Read more
Supreme Court May Block Thousands of Lawsuits Over Monsanto’s Weed Killer
The U.S. Supreme Court will hear Monsanto’s argument that federal pesticide law should shield it and parent company Bayer from tens of thousands of state lawsuits over Roundup since the Environmental Protection Agency has not required a cancer warning label. The case could determine whether federal rules preempt state failure-to-w … ⌘ Read more
Biggest Offshore Wind Project In US To Resume Construction
A federal judge has temporarily lifted the Trump administration’s suspension of the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind, allowing construction on the largest offshore wind project in the U.S. to resume. CNBC reports: Judge Jamar Walker of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia granted Dominion’s request for a preliminary injunction Frida … ⌘ Read more
Personal Info on 17.5 Million Users May Have Leaked to Dark Web After 2024 Instagram Breach
An anonymous reader shared this report from Engadget:
If you received a bunch of password reset requests from Instagram recently, you’re not alone. As reported by Malwarebytes, an antivirus software company, there was a data breach revealing the “sensitive information” of 17.5 million Instagra … ⌘ Read more
No Standard iPhone 18 Launch This Year, Reports Suggest
MacRumors: Apple is not expected to release a standard iPhone 18 model this year, according to a growing number of reports that suggest the company is planning a significant change to its long-standing annual iPhone launch cycle.
Despite the immense success of the iPhone 17 in 2025, the iPhone 18 is not expected to arrive until the spring of 2027, leaving the iP … ⌘ Read more
60 Game Workers Form First Ubisoft Union in North America
About 60 workers in Halifax, Nova Scotia have formed Ubisoft’s first union in North America, reports the CBC (though its 17,000 employees include some unionized workforces in other parts of the world):
T.J. Gillis, a senior server developer at Ubisoft Halifax, says he became increasingly concerned about the growth of artificial intelligence in the industry and … ⌘ Read more
25.2% of Energy EU Used in 2024 Came From Renewables
An anonymous reader shares a report: In 2024, 25.2% of gross final energy consumption in the EU came from renewable sources, up by 0.7 percentage points compared with 2023. This share is 17.3 pp short of meeting the 2030 target (42.5%), which would require an annual average increase of 2.9 pp from 2025 to 2030.
Among the EU countries, Sweden recorded the highest shar … ⌘ Read more
GNU Debugger 17.1 Released With CET Shadow Stack Support, New DAP Features
The GNU Debugger “GDB” 17.1 is out today with a number of new features for enhancing the open-source debugging experience… ⌘ Read more
World-Beating 55,000% Surge in India AI Stock Fuels Bubble Fears
The world’s best-performing stock is turning into a cautionary tale for investors chasing outsized returns from the AI boom. From a report: Little-known until recently even within its home market of India, RRP Semiconductor Ltd. became a social-media obsession as its shares surged more than 55,000% in the 20 months through Dec. 17 – by far the big … ⌘ Read more
Doublespeed Hack Reveals What Its AI-Generated Accounts Are Promoting
An anonymous reader quotes a report from 404 Media: Doublespeed, a startup backed by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) that uses a phone farm to manage at least hundreds of AI-generated social media accounts and promote products has been hacked. The hack reveals what products the AI-generated accounts are promoting, often without the required d … ⌘ Read more
Video Game Hardware Sales Had a Historically Bad November In the US
U.S. video game hardware spending fell 27% year over year in November to $695 million, according to market analyst company Circana. “This is the lowest video game hardware spending total for a November month since the $455 million reached during the November 2005 tracking period,” Circana says. Furthermore, only 1.6 million units of hardwa … ⌘ Read more
Another Starship Clone Pops Up In China
Longtime Slashdot reader schwit1 shares a report from Ars Technica: Every other week, it seems, a new Chinese launch company pops up with a rocket design and a plan to reach orbit within a few years. For a long time, the majority of these companies revealed designs that looked a lot like SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket. The first of these copy cats, the medium-lift Zhuque-3 rocket built by LandSpace … ⌘ Read more
MIT Grieves Shooting Death of Renowned Director of Plasma Science Center
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Guardian: The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) community is grieving after the “shocking” shooting death of the director of its plasma science and fusion center, according to officials. Nuno FG Loureiro, 47, had been shot multiple times at his home in the affluent Boston subu … ⌘ Read more
Senate Confirms Billionaire Entrepreneur Jared Isaacman As New NASA Chief
Longtime Slashdot reader schwit1 shares a report from Politico: The Senate on Wednesday approved Jared Isaacman for the top job at NASA – an unprecedented comeback after President Donald Trump yanked his nomination this spring. Senators confirmed the billionaire private astronaut in a 67-30 vote. Trump renominated Isaacman f … ⌘ Read more
The Oscars Will Abandon Broadcast TV For YouTube In 2029
The Academy has struck a multi-year deal to move the Oscars to YouTube starting in 2029, ending decades on ABC and making the ceremony free to stream worldwide with YouTube holding exclusive global rights. Variety reports: The Oscars, including red carpet coverage, behind-the-scenes content and Governors Ball, will be available live and for free on YouTube to vie … ⌘ Read more
Meta ‘Pauses’ Third-Party Headset Program
Meta has paused its third-party Horizon OS headset program, effectively canceling planned VR headsets from Asus and Lenovo as it refocuses on “building the world-class first-party hardware and software needed to advance the VR market.” Road to VR reports: A little over a year and a half ago, Meta made an “industry-altering announcement,” as I called the move in my reporting: the company wa … ⌘ Read more
Netflix To Add Soccer Video Game Based On FIFA World Cup Next Year
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: Netflix on Wednesday said it will add a soccer simulation title to its gaming portfolio, as the streaming giant looks to leverage the FIFA World Cup 2026 tournament to deepen its video game push. The soccer title will be developed and published by Delphi Interactive, which is also helping cre … ⌘ Read more
GitHub Is Going To Start Charging You For Using Your Own Hardware
GitHub will begin charging $0.002 per minute for self-hosted Actions runners used on private repositories starting in March. “At the same time, GitHub noted in a Tuesday blog post that it’s lowering the prices of GitHub-hosted runners beginning January 1, under a scheme it calls ‘simpler pricing and a better experience for GitHub Actions,’” … ⌘ Read more
Linux Kernel Rust Code Sees Its First CVE Vulnerability
Longtime Linux developer Greg Kroah-Hartman announced that the Linux kernel has received its first CVE tied to Rust code. Phoronix reports: This first CVE (CVE-2025-68260) for Rust code in the Linux kernel pertains to the Android Binder rewrite in Rust. There is a race condition that can occur due to some noted unsafe Rust code. That code can lead to memory corrupti … ⌘ Read more
Google Releases Gemini 3 Flash, Promising Improved Intelligence and Efficiency
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Google began its transition to Gemini 3 a few weeks ago with the launch of the Pro model, and the arrival of Gemini 3 Flash kicks it into high gear. The new, faster Gemini 3 model is coming to the Gemini app and search, and developers will be able to access it immed … ⌘ Read more
Browser Extensions With 8 Million Users Collect Extended AI Conversations
An anonymous reader shares a report: Browser extensions with more than 8 million installs are harvesting complete and extended conversations from users’ AI conversations and selling them for marketing purposes, according to data collected from the Google and Microsoft pages hosting them.
Security firm Koi discovered the eight ex … ⌘ Read more
English Has Become Easier To Read
The conventional wisdom that English prose has gotten easier to read because sentences have gotten shorter is wrong, according to a new analysis published in Works in Progress by writer and Mercatus Center research fellow Henry Oliver. The real transformation happened centuries ago in the 1500s and 1600s when Bible translators like William Tyndale and Thomas Cranmer developed a “plain style” built on logica … ⌘ Read more
FCC Chair Suggests Agency Isn’t Independent, Word Cut From Mission Statement
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said in his Wednesday Senate testimony that the agency he governs “is not an independent agency, formally speaking.” Axios: During his testimony, the word “independent” was removed from the FCC’s mission statement on its website. The extraordinary statement speaks to a broader trend of regulatory age … ⌘ Read more
How We Ingest Plastic Chemicals While Consuming Food
A comprehensive database built by scientists in Switzerland and Norway has catalogued 16,000 chemicals linked to plastic materials, and the findings paint a troubling picture of what Americans are actually eating when they prepare food in their kitchens. Of those 16,000 chemicals, more than 5,400 are considered hazardous to human health by government and industry sta … ⌘ Read more
Coursera Acquires Udemy For $930 Million
Coursera announced on Wednesday that it will acquire rival online learning platform Udemy in an all-stock deal that values the combined company at $2.5 billion, a move that brings together two of the largest U.S.-based players in an industry that has struggled since pandemic-era enrollment highs faded. Under the terms of the agreement, Udemy shareholders will receive 0.8 shares of Coursera for … ⌘ Read more
Google Sues Alleged Chinese Scam Group Behind Massive US Text Message Phishing Ring
Google is suing a Chinese-speaking cybercriminal group it says is responsible for a massive wave of scam text messages sent to Americans this year, according to a legal complaint filed Tuesday. From a report: The group, known as Darcula, sells software that allows users to send phishing text messages en masse … ⌘ Read more
Meta Is Considering Charging Business Pages To Post Links
Meta is informing some users that they will soon be restricted in how many link posts they can share each month, unless they pay for its Meta Verified subscription service. As per the notification message: “Starting December 16, certain Facebook profiles without Meta Verified, including yours, will be limited to sharing links in 2 organic posts per month. Subs … ⌘ Read more
Warner Bros Discovery Board Rejects Rival Bid From Paramount
Warner Bros Discovery’s board spurned Paramount Skydance’s $108.4 billion hostile takeover bid on Wednesday, calling the offer “illusory” as it accused the studio giant of misleading shareholders about its financing. From a report: Paramount has been in a race with Netflix to win control of Warner Bros, and with it, its prized film and televisio … ⌘ Read more
OpenAI in Talks With Amazon About Investment That Could Exceed $10 Billion
OpenAI is in discussions with Amazon about a potential investment and an agreement to use its AI chips, CNBC confirmed on Tuesday. From the report: The details are fluid and still subject to change but the investment could exceed $10 billion, according to a person familiar with the matter who asked not to be named because the talks a … ⌘ Read more
Uber and DoorDash Try To Halt NYC Law That Encourages Tipping
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the New York Times: Two of the largest food-delivery app companies have made a last-ditch effort to overturn tipping laws in New York City that go into effect in January just as its next mayor, who has been highly critical of the companies and the app industry, takes office. Tips to delivery workers have plummet … ⌘ Read more
Senators Count the Shady Ways Data Centers Pass Energy Costs On To Americans
U.S. senators are probing whether Big Tech data centers are driving up local electricity bills by socializing grid upgrade costs onto residents. Some of the tactics they’re using include NDAs, shell companies, and lobbying. Ars Technica reports: In letters (PDF) to seven AI firms, Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Ch … ⌘ Read more
The Arctic Is in Dire Straits, 20 Years of Reporting Show
A new Arctic Report Card recap shows how the Arctic has transformed in just 20 years, warming about twice as fast as the global average and losing most of its oldest sea ice. It’s also triggering cascading impacts from “Atlantification” to permafrost-driven “rusting rivers” and more destructive storms. Scientific American reports: The first Arctic Report Card w … ⌘ Read more
Breach At South Korea’s Equivalent of Amazon Exposed Data of Almost Every Adult
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Wall Street Journal: The alleged perpetrator had improper access to virtually every South Korean adult’s personal information: names, phone numbers and even the keycode to enter residential buildings. It was one of the biggest data breaches of recent years and it has sent the … ⌘ Read more
EU Moves To Ease 2035 Ban On Internal Combustion Cars
The EU is moving to soften its planned 2035 ban on internal combustion cars by allowing a small share of low-emission engines. “The less stringent limit would leave room for automakers to continue selling some plug-in hybrids, which have both electric and internal combustion engines and can use the combustion engine to recharge the battery without the need to find a ch … ⌘ Read more
Flatpak Adds Support For Building OCI Bundles Using Zstd Compressed Layers
Back in November Flatpak 1.17 released with support for sideloading from OCI images and other improvements in working toward the Flatpak 1.18 stable release. Out today is Flatpak 1.17.1 and was then followed quickly by Flatpak 1.17.2 to fix a mistake in the release artifacts… ⌘ Read more
Trump Ban on Wind Energy Permits ‘Unlawful’, Court Rules
A January order blocking wind energy projects in America has now been vacated by a U.S. judge and declared unlawful, reports the Associated Press:
[Judge Saris of the U.S. district court for the district of Massachusetts] ruled in favor of a coalition of state attorneys general from 17 states and Washington DC, led by Letitia James, New York’s attorney gener … ⌘ Read more