Smuggled Starlink Terminals are Beating Iran’s Internet Blackout
An anonymous reader shared this report from the BBC:

“If even one extra person is able to access the internet, I think it’s successful and it’s worth it,” says Sahand. The Iranian man is visibly anxious, speaking to the BBC outside Iran, as he carefully explains how he is part of a clandestine network smuggling satellite internet technology — whi … ⌘ Read more

Four new gadgets for your next cold weather adventure
With a forecast for cooler weather on the way, here’s how you can stay warm, listen to good music, and take great videos on your next venture into nature. ⌘ Read more

Chinese Exports of Green Technologies Surged to Record Levels After Iran War Began
“The war in Iran has sent oil-starved countries scrambling for fuel,” CNN reported this week. And many of those countries now want renewable fuels, the article points out, “leaving them turning to the renewables king of the planet: China.”

Chinese exports of solar technology, batteries and electric vehicle … ⌘ Read more

Using Drones for Cloud-Seeding Can Trigger Rain, Company Claims
Monday a company called Rainmaker announced their rain-triggering technology had produced 143 million gallons of freshwater for Utah and Oregon residents — making them “the first private company in history to validate the results of cloud seeding operations.”

The Deseret News reports:

Founded in 2023, Rainmaker uses drones to disperse silver iodid … ⌘ Read more

The world’s richest man, the AI king, and a courtroom showdown
Elon Musk and Sam Altman have finally landed in an Oakland courtroom and the verdict could reshape OpenAI, the AI race, and the technology defining our era. ⌘ Read more

Scientists Are Starting to Unlock the Nanoscale Secrets of the Immune System
At WIRED Health, immunologist Daniel Davis detailed the ways in which new technologies are enabling a better understanding of the human immune system. ⌘ Read more

DOJ Sues Cloudera For Deliberately Excluding American Workers From Tech Jobs
Longtime Slashdot reader schwit1 shares a report from ZeroHedge: The Justice Department on Tuesday sued Cloudera, accusing the enterprise data and artificial intelligence company of deliberately engineering a hiring process that excluded American workers from at least seven lucrative technology positions while the firm purs … ⌘ Read more

Under fire at home, Airwallex turns to Australia’s youngest founders
As regulators audit its money-laundering controls, one of Australia’s most valuable payments companies is recasting itself as a patron of young AI talent. ⌘ Read more

‘I get to ask the questions, Mr. Musk’: World’s richest person accuses lawyer of trying to trick him in fiery clash
The jury was shown a series of texts and emails that illustrated the growing mistrust between Elon Musk and OpenAI founder Sam Altman before a tense cross-examination. ⌘ Read more

Emergency First Responders Say Waymos Are Getting Worse
“I believe the technology was deployed too quickly in too vast amounts, with hundreds of vehicles, when it wasn’t really ready,” one police official told federal regulators last month. ⌘ Read more

‘It felt like a bribe’: World’s richest person’s texts, emails revealed as he returns to stand
The jury was shown a series of texts and emails that illustrated the growing mistrust between Elon Musk and OpenAI founder Sam Altman. ⌘ Read more

‘It felt like a bribe’: Elon Musk takes aim at Sam Altman as he returns to witness stand
The jury was shown a series of texts and emails that illustrated the growing mistrust between the world’s richest person and the OpenAI founder ⌘ Read more

‘It could kill us all’: Elon Musk sends AI warning as he takes stand in blockbuster trial
The world’s richest person took the stand in a high-stakes trial revolving around a bitter feud between himself and former friends Sam Altman and Greg Brockman begins. ⌘ Read more

‘It’s not OK to steal a charity’: Elon Musk takes stand in blockbuster trial
The world’s richest person took the stand in a high-stakes trial revolving around a bitter feud between himself and former friends Sam Altman and Greg Brockman begins. ⌘ Read more

‘It’s not OK to steal a charity’: Elon Musk takes stand in blockbuster trial
All eyes are on the world’s richest person as the high-stakes trial revolving around a bitter feud between himself and former friends Sam Altman and Greg Brockman begins. ⌘ Read more

‘It’s not OK to steal a charity’: Elon Musk takes stand in blockbuster trial
All eyes are on the world’s richest person as the high-stakes trial revolving around a bitter feud between himself and former friends Sam Altman and Greg Brockman begins. ⌘ Read more

‘It’s not OK to steal a charity’: Elon Musk takes stand in blockbuster trial
All eyes are on the world’s richest person as the high-stakes trial revolving around a bitter feud between himself and former friends Sam Altman and Greg Brockman begins. ⌘ Read more

Get Ready for More Brain-Scanning Consumer Gadgets
Neurable, which makes noninvasive brain-computer interfaces, is licensing its technology and promises a “flood” of new third-party hardware this year and next. ⌘ Read more

The Bloomberg Terminal Is Getting an AI Makeover, Like It or Not
WIRED spoke with Bloomberg’s chief technology officer about the big, chatbot-style changes coming to the iconic platform for traders. ⌘ Read more

Meta will throw the toys out of the cot, again
Local journalism deserves saving. But the scheme designed to save it rests on assumptions that the Facebook and Instagram owner has already demolished, without consequences. ⌘ Read more

Elon Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman Head To Court
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Associated Press: Technology tycoons Elon Musk and Sam Altman are poised to face off in a high-stakes trial revolving around the alleged betrayal, deceit and unbridled ambition that blurred the bickering billionaires’ once-shared vision for the development of artificial intelligence. The trial, which started Monday with jury selecti … ⌘ Read more

Red Hat’s Stratis Storage 3.9 Released With Online Encryption/Decryption/Reencryption
It’s crazy to realize it has been ten years already since Red Hat abandoned their Btrfs plans for Red Hat Enterprise Linux and dropped it, which was a technology preview feature since RHEL6. In its place Red Hat engineers began developing Stratis for next-gen Linux storage with ZFS/Btrfs-like features but instead building atop XFS, LUKS, Device Mapper, and Clevis. After a while since the last major release, Stratis Storage 3 … ⌘ Read more

AI giant Anthropic hires Australian boss as it opens local office
The company behind chatbot Claude is opening its Sydney doors as workers grow increasingly anxious about AI’s impact on their jobs. ⌘ Read more

The best noise-cancelling headphones for 2026, tested
Whether you’re after the most powerful silencing, the best on-the-go sound quality or the best value, here are our top recommendations. ⌘ Read more

Tech giants ship more than $14 billion offshore amid AI debate
New filings show the extent to which Google, Meta and Amazon send revenue overseas, as new media laws loom. ⌘ Read more

Meta’s Australian cash machine: $1.5 billion shipped offshore
New filings show the tech giant sent most of its revenues offshore and paid its first dividend in years, as new media laws loom. ⌘ Read more

Bank Robber Challenges Conviction Based on His Cellphone’s Location Data
An anonymous reader shared this report from the Associated Pres:

Okello Chatrie’s cellphone gave him away. Chatrie made off with $195,000 from the bank he robbed in suburban Richmond, Virginia, and eluded the police until they turned to a powerful technological tool that erected a virtual fence and allowed them collect the location … ⌘ Read more

Meet the Melbourne-built robot now in dozens of aged care homes
Abi speaks 90 languages, blows bubbles and remembers your stories. Her 26-year-old creator is betting a humanoid designed for empathy will reshape aged care. ⌘ Read more

Hundreds more EV chargers won’t cut it. We need thousands
Why aren’t more motorists switching to EVs? We found out, on the road to Gundagai. ⌘ Read more

Microsoft investing $25 billion in Australia
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has spoken about the company’s $25 billion commitment to expand AI infrastructure. ⌘ Read more

Microsoft investing $25 billion in Australia
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has spoken about the company’s $25 billion commitment to expand AI infrastructure. ⌘ Read more

Intel Lands Tesla As First Major Customer For 14A Chip Technology
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: Tesla CEO Elon Musk said on Wednesday the EV maker plans to use Intel’s next-generation 14A manufacturing process to make chips at its Terafab project, an advanced AI chip complex Musk has envisioned in Austin. The contract would mark Intel’s first major customer for the technology, a breakt … ⌘ Read more

Your Phone’s Next Speed Boost May Come From Magnetic Chips
alternative_right writes: A new technology has been proposed that could fundamentally solve the issue of smartphones overheating during high-spec gaming or extended video streaming. Researchers at KAIST have discovered the principle of processing signals using the minute vibrations of magnets (spin waves) instead of electrons. This method significantly reduc … ⌘ Read more

Microsoft unveils $25b AI splurge in Australia, but key details missing
The US tech giant makes its largest-ever Australian commitment to expand AI infrastructure, cyber defences and skills – but stays silent on sites, power and jobs. ⌘ Read more

Pentagon Wants $54 Billion For Drones
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: The US military’s massive $1.5 trillion budget request for the next fiscal year includes what Pentagon officials described as the largest investment in drone warfare and counter-drone technology in US history. The proposed spending on drone and autonomous warfare technologies within the FY2027 budget proposal for the US Department of Defense would … ⌘ Read more

Millions of renters hit by unlawful data collection
The Privacy Commissioner’s landmark ruling comes as Australia’s rental market reaches crisis levels. ⌘ Read more

Who is new Apple CEO John Ternus?
After 15 years in charge Tim Cook has named well-liked Apple engineer John Ternus as his successor. ⌘ Read more

Palantir Posts Bond Villain Manifesto On X
DeanonymizedCoward writes: Engadget reports that Palantir has posted to X a summary of CEO Alex Karp and Nicholas W. Zamiska’s 2025 book, The Technological Republic, which reads like a utopian idealist doodled on a Bond villain’s whiteboard. While the post makes some decent points, it also highlights the Big-AI attitude that the AI surveillance state is in fact a good thing, and strongly i … ⌘ Read more

A 40-year-old storage company just beat Mike Cannon-Brookes’ Atlassian
Atlassian posted its strongest quarter ever, then got kicked out of the Nasdaq 100. The market has stopped rewarding software and started paying for storage. ⌘ Read more

Tech expert Trevor Long tips Apple to launch folding smartphone
It seems more likely than ever that Apple will introduce a foldable smartphone this year, says tech expert Trevor Long. ⌘ Read more

Tech expert Trevor Long tips Apple to launch folding smartphone
It seems more likely than ever that Apple will introduce a foldable smartphone this year, says tech expert Trevor Long. ⌘ Read more

Done and dusted: The best high-end stick vacuums for infrequent emptying
Want a high performing vacuum that you don’t need to be pulling dust out of every day? Here are our top four choices. ⌘ Read more

Remembering Zip Drives - the Trendy Storage Technology of the 1990s
Back in the 1990s, floppy disks “had a mere capacity of 1.44MB,” remembers XDA Developers, “which would soon become absolutely tiny for the increasingly large pieces of software that would come about.”

Floppy disks also felt quite fragile, and while we got “superfloppy” formats that were physically larger and had more capacity, those w … ⌘ Read more

The five buzziest AI office tools, and what they do
From your own personal executive assistant to a way to access all chatbots in the one app, here are five of the fastest-growing AI tools. ⌘ Read more

US Government Now Wants Anthropic’s ‘Mythos’, Preparing for AI Cybersecurity Threats
Friday Anthropic’s CEO met with top U.S. officials and “discussed opportunities for collaboration,” according to a White House spokesperson itedd by Politico, “as well as shared approaches and protocols to address the challenges associated with scaling this technology.”

CNN notes the meeting happens at the same … ⌘ Read more

Mozilla ‘Thunderbolt’ Is an Open-Source AI Client Focused On Control and Self-Hosting
BrianFagioli writes: Mozilla’s email subsidiary MZLA Technologies just introduced Thunderbolt, an open-source AI client aimed at organizations that want to run AI on their own infrastructure instead of relying entirely on cloud services. The idea is to give companies full control over their data, models, an … ⌘ Read more

Inside Canva’s $100 billion gamble on an AI-first rebuild
Melanie Perkins pitched the idea in 2011 and was knocked back by 100 investors. Fifteen years, Canva is finally building it. ⌘ Read more

@movq@www.uninformativ.de But even the same model behaves differently if you upgrade to a newer version. Or it hopefully should, why otherwise would one want to update in the first place? A fixed, predictable output would be the result of us oldtimers doing something with inferior, ancient technology!

Nature Is Still Molding Human Genes, Study Finds
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the New York Times: Many scientists have contended that humans have evolved very little over the past 10,000 years. A few hundred generations was just a blink of the evolutionary eye, it seemed. Besides, our cultural evolution – our technology, agriculture and the rest – must have overwhelmed our biological evolution by now. A vast study … ⌘ Read more

$3.1m per job: does the employment case for data centres stack up?
For every $3.1 million invested in data centre infrastructure, according to the industry’s own figures, Australia gets one permanent data centre job. ⌘ Read more