‘Inexcusable’: Optus staff face sack after review into Triple Zero outage
The telco’s chairman calls the findings of an independent review into the incident “a sobering read for everyone at Optus”. ⌘ Read more
US Threatens Penalties Against European Tech Firms Amid Regulatory Fight
U.S. officials excoriated the European Union for discriminating against American technology companies and threatened to penalize European tech companies in return, in a social media post on Tuesday. From a report: The pronouncement appeared to signal a rockier period for U.S.-E.U. trade relations, as the two governments work to fi … ⌘ Read more
Texas Sues TV Makers For Taking Screenshots of What People Watch
mprindle writes: The Texas Attorney General sued five major television manufacturers, accusing them of illegally collecting their users’ data by secretly recording what they watch using Automated Content Recognition (ACR) technology.
The lawsuits target Sony, Samsung, LG, and China-based companies Hisense and TCL Technology Group Corporation. Att … ⌘ Read more
Fake hero, wrong suspect: Misinformation floods social media after Bondi shooting
Elon Musk’s chatbot said Edward Crabtree – a fictional 47-year-old IT professional – was the hero who tackled one of the attackers and seized his weapon. ⌘ Read more
JPMorgan Steps Further Into Crypto With Tokenized Money Fund
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Wall Street Journal: JPMorgan Chase is joining the list of traditional financial firms seeking to bring blockchain technology to an investing staple: the money-market fund. The banking giant’s $4 trillion asset-management arm is rolling out its first tokenized money-market fund on the Ethereum blockchain. JPMo … ⌘ Read more
Merriam-Webster’s 2025 Word of the Year Is ‘Slop’
Merriam-Webster crowned “slop” its 2025 Word of the Year, reflecting growing public awareness and and fatigue around low-quality, AI-generated content flooding the internet. “It’s such an illustrative word,” said Greg Barlow, Merriam-Webster’s president. “It’s part of a transformative technology, AI, and it’s something that people have found fascinating, annoying and a little bi … ⌘ Read more
US Tech Force Aims To Recruit 1,000 Technologists
The Trump administration announced Monday the United States Tech Force, a new program to recruit around 1,000 technologists for two-year government stints starting as soon as March – less than a year after dismantling several federal technology teams and driving thousands of tech workers out of their jobs.
The program will primarily recruit early-career software engineers an … ⌘ Read more
Desperate vibes as under-16s crowd into Yope and Lemon8
Lemon8, Coverstar and Yope are social media hiding places for Australian under-16s, but for how long? ⌘ Read more
Chinese Whistleblower Living In US Is Being Hunted By Beijing With US Tech
A former Chinese official who fled to the U.S. says Beijing has used advanced surveillance technology from U.S. companies to track, intimidate, and punish him and his family across borders. ABC News reports: Retired Chinese official Li Chuanliang was recuperating from cancer on a Korean resort island when he got an urgent call: … ⌘ Read more
The best video games of 2025, from Ghost of Yotei to Hades 2
There were hundreds of great games released this year, but these are my favourite 15. ⌘ Read more
China Leads Research in 90% of Crucial Technologies - a Dramatic Shift this Century
China is leading research in nearly 90% of the crucial technologies that “significantly enhance, or pose risks to, a country’s national interests,” according to a technology tracker run by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) – an independent think-tank. Nature: The ASPI’s Critical Technology Tracker e … ⌘ Read more
The great scroll off: Inside Australia’s world-first teen social media ban
How grieving parents, media campaigns, and political opportunism collided to create the world’s most ambitious - and contentious - experiment in digital regulation. ⌘ Read more
‘Missing the mark’: Reddit files High Court bid to overturn teen social media ban
The platform says banning under 16s from social media silences young Australians and makes them less safe online. ⌘ Read more
Reddit files High Court bid to overturn teen social media ban
The platform says banning under-16s from social media silences young Australians and makes them less safe online. ⌘ Read more
Cat and mouse: How under-16s are circumventing the social media ban
Most kids on social media will be blocked, but here’s how the most relentless plan to stay. ⌘ Read more
Genetic trick to make mosquitoes malaria resistant passes key test
The rollout of a type of genetic technology called a gene drive for tackling malaria could be edging closer after a lab study supports its success ⌘ 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
I tried making new social media accounts as an under-16. Things are still messy
Most apps will block you if you say you’re under 16, but some don’t seem to be doing much to vet users if they lie. ⌘ Read more
Social media ban shouldn’t be judged by its impact on day one
Regardless of workarounds and likely teething problems, the impact of the law will be measured not over days and weeks, but over the much longer term. ⌘ Read more
Senators accuse telcos of Triple Zero ‘cover-up’ over system failures
Almost 100,000 Samsung phones still can’t reliably call Triple Zero, and the inquiry into the system has revealed dysfunctional communications between telcos, regulators and the federal government. ⌘ Read more
‘Time to go’: Calls for UTS VC to resign after staff no confidence vote
The union-run vote comes as controversial, consultant-designed redundancies continue and politicians call for resignations. ⌘ Read more
‘People want me to fail’: The woman in charge of enforcing Australia’s social media ban feels the heat
Julie Inman Grant is battling tech giants and High Court challenges while navigating her 13-year-old daughter’s conviction that the ban will “ruin her life”. ⌘ Read more
TPG reveals second possible Triple Zero death
The telco’s chief executive Inaki Berroeta has told a Senate committee hearing that incompatible Samsung software is to blame. ⌘ 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
TPG reveals new possible Triple Zero death
The telco’s chief executive Inaki Berroeta has told a Senate committee hearing that incompatible Samsung software is to blame. ⌘ 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
Japan is facing a dementia crisis – can technology help?
Elderly people aged 65 and over now make up nearly 30% of Japan’s population. ⌘ Read more
EU Urged to Soften 2035 Ban on Internal Combustion Engine Cars
Friday six European Union countries “asked the European Commission to water down an effective ban on the sale of internal combustion engine cars slated for 2035,” reports Reuters
The countries have asked the EU Commission to allow the sale of hybrid cars or vehicles powered by other, existing or future, technologies “that could contribute to the goa … ⌘ Read more
How Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora’s From the Ashes expansion aligns with the new film
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora’s From the Ashes game expansion is directly connected to James Cameron’s upcoming film, Avatar: Fire and Ash. 9news.com.au spoke with its creators to learn more about the new game update ahead of its release on December 18. ⌘ Read more
Many Privileged Students at US Universities are Getting Extra Time on Tests After ‘Disability’ Diagnoses
Today America’s college professors “struggle to accommodate the many students with an official disability designation,” reports the Atlantic, “which may entitle them to extra time, a distraction-free environment, or the use of otherwise-prohibited technology.”
Their st … ⌘ Read more
The Anxieties of Full-Body MRI Scans (Not Covered by Insurance)
Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank calls himself “a highly creative hypochondriac” — who just paid for an expensive MRI scan to locate abnormal spots as tiny as 2 millimeters.
He discusses the pros and cons of its “diffusion-weighted imaging” technology combined with the pattern recognition of AI, which theoretically “has the potential to save … ⌘ Read more
From cameras to consoles: the ultimate tech gift guide for Christmas
Our favourite bits of kit make great presents, with options from $50 to $1000. ⌘ Read more
OpenAI Has Trained Its LLM To Confess To Bad Behavior
An anonymous reader quotes a report from MIT Technology Review: OpenAI is testing another new way to expose the complicated processes at work inside large language models. Researchers at the company can make an LLM produce what they call a confession, in which the model explains how it carried out a task and (most of the time) owns up to any bad behavior. Figuring out why … ⌘ Read more
‘World’s first drone war’: Russia-Ukraine war pits technology against manpower
When it comes to weaponry, Russia has strength in manpower despite Ukraine’s early technological edge while Europe’s arms production efforts are running into infrastructure hurdles. ⌘ Read more
A $70 million mirage: Lessons from Australia’s biggest start-up blow-up
Strongroom AI raised $17 million at a $70 million valuation. Three weeks later, investors called the police. ⌘ Read more
Why One Man Is Fighting For Our Right To Control Our Garage Door Openers
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the New York Times: A few years ago, Paul Wieland, a 44-year-old information technology professional living in New York’s Adirondack Mountains, was wrapping up a home renovation when he ran into a hiccup. He wanted to be able to control his new garage door with his smartphone. But the o … ⌘ Read more
AI Chatbots Can Sway Voters Better Than Political Ads
An anonymous reader quotes a report from MIT Technology Review: New research reveals that AI chatbots can shift voters’ opinions in a single conversation – and they’re surprisingly good at it. A multi-university team of researchers has found that chatting with a politically biased AI model was more effective than political advertisements at nudging both Democrats … ⌘ Read more
Deep-sea mining tests impact over a third of seabed animals, scientists say
The findings contribute to a controversial debate that pits green technology against the environment. ⌘ Read more
Facial age verification: Can it be fooled and how safe is it?
Scanning a face to guess its age is likely to be a major part of the “waterfall” of methods used to comply with the social media ban. ⌘ Read more
Wider use of facial recognition could see biggest change in policing since DNA, minister says
The Home Office hopes a new public consultation will lead to new laws expanding the use of the technology by more police forces. ⌘ Read more
Wider use of facial recognition could see biggest change in policing since DNA, minister says
The Home Office hopes a new public consultation will lead to new laws expanding the use of the technology by more police forces. ⌘ Read more
Facial recognition could be used more widely by police
The Home Office hopes a new public consultation will lead to new laws expanding the use of the technology by more police forces. ⌘ Read more
After Nearly 30 Years, Crucial Will Stop Selling RAM To Consumers
Micron is shutting down its Crucial consumer RAM business in 2026 after nearly three decades, citing heavy demand from AI data centers. “The AI-driven growth in the data center has led to a surge in demand for memory and storage,” Sumit Sadana, EVP and chief business officer at Micron Technology, said in a statement. “Micron has made the dif … ⌘ Read more
Meta’s AI wrongly bans Australian businesses
Instagram owner’s support systems have been labelled useless as the telecommunications ombudsman says complaints about social media and digital platforms are soaring. ⌘ Read more
Como é que estas palavras não estão trocadas?
Na notícia em https://eco.sapo.pt/entrevista/amazon-web-services-prepara-investimento-em-novo-centro-de-servicos-em-portugal-data-sera-conhecida-em-breve/ , lê-se o título:
“Amazon Web Services prepara investimento em novo centro de serviços em Portugal. Data será conhecida “em breve””
mas depois temos como subtítulo:
“André Rodrigues, head of technology para a Europa do Sul da Amazon Web Services, afirma que a tecnológica está interessada em investir na cloud soberana que o Governo quer implementar.”
Portanto a acreditar nestes textos, a Amazon, quer “investir” na “cloud soberana” do Governo. Mas, claro, isso não faz sentido, a cloud soberana não é uma empresa cotada em bolsa ou algo em que se possa investir… Que poderá então isto querer dizer?
Ora, a notícia propriamente dita diz que “André Rodrigues, head of technology para a Europa do Sul da Amazon Web Services, afirma que a tecnológica está interessada em investir na cloud soberana que o Governo quer implementar. A tecnológica aguarda apenas que sejam “definidas as guidelines sobre aquilo que será a diretriz do governo para a cloud“.”
Ou seja, a Amazon está a pensar em concorrer para ser fornecedor para a nossa cloud soberana: vai tentar que Portugal invista na Amazon, não o contrário.
Esperemos que as diretrizes sejam para uma cloud verdadeiramente soberana - e se forem, então a Amazon não poderá ser fornecedora.
WA’s surrogacy, IVF laws overhauled as legislation passes parliament
Same-sex couples, single people, transgender and intersex West Australians will be able to access assisted reproductive technology and surrogacy, almost a decade after reforms were first promised. ⌘ Read more
Australia’s social media lockout begins as teens face digital exile
Meta will start booting under-16s from Facebook and Instagram on Thursday, while YouTube finally “begrudgingly” confirms compliance. ⌘ Read more
Amazon To Use Nvidia Tech In AI Chips, Roll Out New Servers
AWS is deepening its partnership with Nvidia by adopting “NVLink Fusion” in its upcoming Trainium4 AI chips. “The NVLink technology creates speedy connections between different kinds of chips and is one of Nvidia’s crown jewels,” notes Reuters. From the report: Nvidia has been pushing to sign up other chip firms to adopt its NVLink technology, with Intel, Qualco … ⌘ Read more
What if artificial intelligence is just a ‘normal’ technology?
Its rise might yet follow the path of previous technological revolutions. ⌘ Read more
New satellite images show scale of China’s Philippine Sea flotilla
Private firm Starboard Maritime Intelligence says it has used satellite technology to track down the People’s Liberation Army Navy task group. ⌘ Read more