Tech News
World's Biggest Zipper Maker Is Developing a Self-Propelled Zipper
technology - Posted On:2025-04-25 21:30:01 Source: slashdot
YKK, the world's largest zipper maker, has unveiled a prototype self-propelled zipper that uses a motorized worm gear to zip itself closed at the push of a button. It currently relies on a wired remote and external power, and can zip spans up to 16 feet in under a minute. The Verge reports: Although some recent zipper innovations, such as Under Armour's one-handed MagZip upgrade, are designed to improve accessibility and make zippers easier to use for those with limited mobility, YKK envisions more industrial use cases for its prototype. As demonstrated in a video recently shared on the company's YouTube channel, the self-propelled zipper is seen connecting a pair of 16-foot-tall membranes in about 40 seconds. Zipping them together manually would require the use of a ladder or other machinery. In another video, the prototype is used to quickly connect a pair of 13-foot-wide temporary shelters standing over eight feet tall, taking about 50 seconds to progress from one side to the other. [...] In addition to miniaturizing the tech and adding a battery, YKK would also need to develop some safety mechanisms before its self-propelled zipper could ever reach consumers' clothing, ensuring there's nothing that might get stuck. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Comcast President Bemoans Broadband Customer Losses: 'We Are Not Winning'
technology - Posted On:2025-04-25 20:15:00 Source: slashdot
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Comcast executives apparently realized something that customers have known and complained about for years: The Internet provider's prices aren't transparent enough and rise too frequently. This might not have mattered much to cable executives as long as the total number of subscribers met their targets. But after reporting a net loss of 183,000 residential broadband customers in Q1 2025, Comcast President Mike Cavanagh said the company isn't "winning in the marketplace" during an earnings call today. The Q1 2025 customer loss was over three times larger than the net loss in Q1 2024. While customers often have few viable options for broadband and the availability of alternatives varies widely by location, Comcast faces competition from fiber and fixed wireless ISPs. "In this intensely competitive environment, we are not winning in the marketplace in a way that is commensurate with the strength of the network and connectivity products that I just described," Cavanagh said. "[Cable division CEO] Dave [Watson] and his team have worked hard to understand the reasons for this disconnect and have identified two primary causes. One is price transparency and predictability and the other is the level of ease of doing business with us. The good news is that both are fixable and we are already underway with execution plans to address these challenges." [...] Cavanagh said that Comcast plans to make changes in marketing and operations "with the highest urgency." This means that "we are simplifying our pricing construct to make our price-to-value proposition clearer to consumers across all broadband segments," he said. Comcast last week announced a five-year price guarantee for broadband customers who sign up for a new package. Comcast said customers will get a "simple monthly price starting as low as $55 per month," without having to enter a contract, giving them "freedom and flexibility to cancel at any time without penalty." The five-year guarantee also comes with one year of Xfinity Mobile at no charge, Comcast said. [...] Additional offers are in the works, Cavanagh said. "We are not done. Providing more value to our customers with less complexity and friction is a top priority and you will see our go-to-market approach continue to evolve over the coming months," he said. Comcast investors shouldn't expect an immediate turnaround, though. "We anticipate that it will take several quarters for our new approach to gain traction and impact the business in a meaningful way," Cavanagh said. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Google Is Killing Software Support For Early Nest Thermostats
technology - Posted On:2025-04-25 18:45:00 Source: slashdot
Google announced it will end software updates and remote control support for the first- and second-generation Nest Learning Thermostats (plus the 2014 European model) starting October 25th. "You will no longer be able to control them remotely from your phone or with Google Assistant, but can still adjust the temperature and modify schedules directly on the thermostat," the company wrote in a Friday blog post. The Verge reports: In other significant news, Google is flatly stating that it has no plans to release additional Nest thermostats in Europe. "Heating systems in Europe are unique and have a variety of hardware and software requirements that make it challenging to build for the diverse set of homes," the company said. "The Nest Learning Thermostat (3rd gen, 2015) and Nest Thermostat E (2018) will continue to be sold in Europe while current supplies last." [...] In a clear attempt to ease customer anger, Google is offering a $130 discount on the fourth-gen Nest Learning Thermostat in the US, $160 off the same device in Canada, and 50 percent savings on the Tado Smart Thermostat X in Europe since the Nest lineup will soon be gone. The original Nest thermostats were released while the company was an independent brand under the leadership of former Apple executive Tony Fadell. Google acquired Nest in 2014 for $3.2 billion. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Microsoft Launches Windows Recall After Year-Long Delay
it - Posted On:2025-04-25 17:00:00 Source: slashdot
Microsoft has finally released Windows Recall to the general public, nearly a year after first announcing the controversial feature. Available exclusively on Copilot+ PCs, Recall continuously captures screenshots of user activity, storing them in a searchable database with extracted text. The feature's original launch was derailed by significant security concerns, as critics noted anyone with access to a Recall database could potentially view nearly everything done on the device. Microsoft's revamped version addresses these issues with improved security protections, better content filtering for sensitive information, and crucially, making Recall opt-in rather than opt-out. The rollout includes two additional Copilot+ features: an improved Search function with natural language understanding, and "Click to Do," which enables text copying from images and quick summarization of on-screen content. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Microsoft To Kill Windows Maps App in July
it - Posted On:2025-04-25 13:45:00 Source: slashdot
Microsoft will remove its Maps app from the Microsoft Store in July 2025, delivering an "update" that renders the application completely nonfunctional. Following the cutoff, users won't be able to reinstall the app even if previously downloaded, according to a Microsoft support document. While the app will retain personal data like saved navigation routes and map URLs, this information will become unusable after the deprecation. The Maps application, a remnant from the Windows Phone and Windows 10 Mobile era, will disappear completely while Bing Maps will continue functioning as a web service through bing.com/maps. Microsoft hasn't provided specific reasoning for the decision to sunset the desktop application, which has existed as an increasingly anachronistic holdover from Microsoft's abandoned mobile platform efforts. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
The 'You Wouldn't Steal a Car' Campaign Used a Pirated Font
it - Posted On:2025-04-25 13:00:00 Source: slashdot
The iconic "You Wouldn't Steal a Car" anti-piracy campaign, which dramatically equated digital piracy with physical theft, appears to have used a pirated font in its own materials. New evidence indicates the campaign utilized "XBAND Rough," a free clone of the commercial "FF Confidential" font, which requires a license. TorrentFreak independently confirmed campaign materials from 2005 embedded the XBAND Rough font rather than the original created by Just Van Rossum in 1992. Researchers discovered the font in PDF files hosted on the campaign's official website. Van Rossum, FF Confidential's creator, called the revelation "hilarious" when informed by TorrentFreak. "I knew my font was used for the campaign and that a pirated clone named XBand-Rough existed. I did not know that the campaign used XBand-Rough," he said. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
YC Partner Argues Most AI Apps Are Currently 'Horseless Carriages'
it - Posted On:2025-04-25 12:15:01 Source: slashdot
Pete Koomen, a Y Combinator partner, argues that current AI applications often fail by unnecessarily constraining their underlying models, much like early automobiles that mimicked horse-drawn carriages rather than reimagining transportation. In his detailed critique, Koomen uses Gmail's AI email draft feature as a prime example. The tool generates formal, generic emails that don't match users' actual writing styles, often producing drafts longer than what users would naturally write. The critical flaw, according to Koomen, is that users cannot customize the system prompt -- the instructions that tell the AI how to behave. "When an LLM agent is acting on my behalf I should be allowed to teach it how to do that by editing the System Prompt," Koomen writes. Koomen suggests AI is actually better at reading and transforming text than generating it. His vision for truly useful AI email tools involves automating mundane work -- categorizing, prioritizing, and drafting contextual replies based on personalized rules -- rather than simply generating content from scratch. The essay argues that developers should build "agent builders" instead of agents, allowing users to teach AI systems their preferences and patterns. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Yahoo Wants To Buy Chrome
technology - Posted On:2025-04-25 10:15:00 Source: slashdot
Legacy search brand Yahoo has been working on its own web browser prototype, and says it would like to buy Google's Chrome if the company is forced by a court to sell it. From a report: The information came out during the fourth day of the Justice Department's remedies trial to rectify Google's search monopoly. The DOJ has -- among other proposals -- requested Judge Amit Mehta break up Google by requiring it sell its Chrome browser, which the agency says is a key distribution channel for its popular search engine that's amassed too much power for anyone else to compete. Yahoo isn't the only company interested in buying Chrome. While DuckDuckGo's CEO said they wouldn't be able to afford it, witnesses from Perplexity and OpenAI both expressed interest in the popular browser on the stand this week. Yahoo obviously isn't worth Chrome's estimated price tag of tens of billions of dollars. So the company is saying that its owner, the hedge fund giant Apollo, will help bankroll the purchase should the opportunity present itself. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Perplexity CEO Says Its Browser Will Track Everything Users Do Online To Sell Ads
technology - Posted On:2025-04-25 09:15:00 Source: slashdot
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas said this week on the TBPN podcast that one reason Perplexity is building its own browser is to collect data on everything users do outside of its own app. This so it can sell premium ads. "That's kind of one of the other reasons we wanted to build a browser, is we want to get data even outside the app to better understand you," Srinivas said. "Because some of the prompts that people do in these AIs is purely work-related. It's not like that's personal." And work-related queries won't help the AI company build an accurate-enough dossier. "On the other hand, what are the things you're buying; which hotels are you going [to]; which restaurants are you going to; what are you spending time browsing, tells us so much more about you," he explained. Srinivas believes that Perplexity's browser users will be fine with such tracking because the ads should be more relevant to them. "We plan to use all the context to build a better user profile and, maybe you know, through our discover feed we could show some ads there," he said. The browser, named Comet, suffered setbacks but is on track to be launched in May, Srinivas said. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Waymo Reports 250,000 Paid Robotaxi Rides Per Week In US
technology - Posted On:2025-04-24 22:30:00 Source: slashdot
Waymo is now providing over 250,000 paid robotaxi rides per week in the U.S., up from 200,000 in February, as it expands into cities like Austin and grows partnerships with Uber and automakers. CNBC reports: "We can't possibly do it all ourselves," said Pichai on a call with analysts for Alphabet's first-quarter earnings. Pichai noted that Waymo has not entirely defined its long-term business model, and there is "future optionality around personal ownership" of vehicles equipped with Waymo's self-driving technology. The company is also exploring the ways it can scale up its operations, he said. The 250,000 paid rides per week are up from 200,000 in February, before Waymo opened in Austin and expanded in the San Francisco Bay Area in March. Waymo, which is part of Alphabet's Other Bets segment, is already running its commercial, driverless ride-hailing services in the San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix and Austin regions. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
US Agency To Ease Self-Driving Vehicle Deployment Hurdles, Retain Reporting Rules
technology - Posted On:2025-04-24 21:45:00 Source: slashdot
The Trump administration introduced a new framework to expedite self-driving vehicle deployment by reducing regulatory hurdles, while maintaining mandatory safety incident reporting. NHTSA is also expanding its exemption program, allowing domestically produced autonomous vehicles lacking traditional safety controls to operate on U.S. roads. Reuters reports: The Trump administration said Thursday it aims to speed up the deployment of self-driving vehicles but will maintain rules requiring reporting of safety incidents involving advanced vehicles. U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy on Thursday released a new framework to boost autonomous vehicles. "This administration understands that we're in a race with China to out-innovate, and the stakes couldn't be higher," Duffy said. "Our new framework will slash red tape." The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it will expand a program to exempt some self-driving vehicles from all safety requirements and will streamline but continue its requirement that vehicles equipped with certain advanced driver assistance systems or self-driving systems report safety incidents. NHTSA is expanding its Automated Vehicle Exemption Program to now include domestically produced vehicles that will allow companies to operate non-compliant imported vehicles on U.S. roads. It is currently only open to foreign assembled models. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Microsoft Brings Native PyTorch Arm Support To Windows Devices
technology - Posted On:2025-04-24 19:45:00 Source: slashdot
Microsoft has announced native PyTorch support for Windows on Arm devices with the release of PyTorch 2.7, making it significantly easier for developers to build and run machine learning models directly on Arm-powered Windows machines. This eliminates the need for manual compilation and opens up performance gains for AI tasks like image classification, NLP, and generative AI. Neowin reports: With the release of PyTorch 2.7, native Arm builds for Windows on Arm are now readily available for Python 3.12. This means developers can simply install PyTorch using a standard package manager like pip. According to Microsoft: "This unlocks the potential to leverage the full performance of Arm64 architecture on Windows devices, like Copilot+ PCs, for machine learning experimentation, providing a robust platform for developers and researchers to innovate and refine their models." Read more of this story at Slashdot.
New Android Spyware Is Targeting Russian Military Personnel On the Front Lines
technology - Posted On:2025-04-24 18:15:01 Source: slashdot
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Russian military personnel are being targeted with recently discovered Android malware that steals their contacts and tracks their location. The malware is hidden inside a modified app for Alpine Quest mapping software, which is used by, among others, hunters, athletes, and Russian personnel stationed in the war zone in Ukraine. The app displays various topographical maps for use online and offline. The trojanized Alpine Quest app is being pushed on a dedicated Telegram channel and in unofficial Android app repositories. The chief selling point of the trojanized app is that it provides a free version of Alpine Quest Pro, which is usually available only to paying users. The malicious module is named Android.Spy.1292.origin. In a blog post, researchers at Russia-based security firm Dr.Web wrote: "Because Android.Spy.1292.origin is embedded into a copy of the genuine app, it looks and operates as the original, which allows it to stay undetected and execute malicious tasks for longer periods of time. Each time it is launched, the trojan collects and sends the following data to the C&C server: - the user's mobile phone number and their accounts; - contacts from the phonebook; - the current date; - the current geolocation; - information about the files stored on the device; - the app's version." If there are files of interest to the threat actors, they can update the app with a module that steals them. The threat actors behind Android.Spy.1292.origin are particularly interested in confidential documents sent over Telegram and WhatsApp. They also show interest in the file locLog, the location log created by Alpine Quest. The modular design of the app makes it possible for it to receive additional updates that expand its capabilities even further. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Google AI Fabricates Explanations For Nonexistent Idioms
technology - Posted On:2025-04-24 15:00:01 Source: slashdot
Google's search AI is confidently generating explanations for nonexistent idioms, once again revealing fundamental flaws in large language models. Users discovered that entering any made-up phrase plus "meaning" triggers AI Overviews that present fabricated etymologies with unwarranted authority. When queried about phrases like "a loose dog won't surf," Google's system produces detailed, plausible-sounding explanations rather than acknowledging these expressions don't exist. The system occasionally includes reference links, further enhancing the false impression of legitimacy. Computer scientist Ziang Xiao from Johns Hopkins University attributes this behavior to two key LLM characteristics: prediction-based text generation and people-pleasing tendencies. "The prediction of the next word is based on its vast training data," Xiao explained. "However, in many cases, the next coherent word does not lead us to the right answer." Read more of this story at Slashdot.
AI Compute Costs Drive Shift To Usage-Based Software Pricing
technology - Posted On:2025-04-24 13:00:00 Source: slashdot
The software-as-a-service industry is undergoing a fundamental transformation, abandoning the decades-old "per seat" licensing model in favor of usage-based pricing structures. This shift, Business Insider reports, is primarily driven by the astronomical compute costs associated with new "reasoning" AI models that power modern enterprise software. Unlike traditional generative AI, these reasoning models execute multiple computational loops to check their work -- a process called inference-time compute -- dramatically increasing token usage and operational expenses. OpenAI's o3-high model reportedly consumes 1,000 times more tokens than its predecessor, with a single benchmark response costing approximately $3,500, according to Barclays. Companies including Bolt.new, Vercel, and Monday.com have already implemented usage-based or hybrid pricing models that tie costs directly to AI resource consumption. ServiceNow maintains primarily seat-based pricing but has added usage meters for extreme cases. "When it goes beyond what we can credibly afford, we have to have some kind of meter," ServiceNow CEO Bill McDermott said, while emphasizing that customers "still want seat-based predictability." Read more of this story at Slashdot.
New Smartphone Labels For Battery Life and Repairability Are Coming To the EU
it - Posted On:2025-04-24 11:30:00 Source: slashdot
The European Union has announced details of new mandatory labels for smartphones and tablets sold in the bloc, which include ratings for energy efficiency, durability, and repairability. From a report: Hardware will also have to meet new "ecodesign requirements" to be sold in the EU, including a requirement to make spare parts available for repair. The labels, which will be required for any devices that go on sale from June 20th onwards, are similar to existing ones for home appliances and TVs. They display the product's energy efficiency rating, on a scale from A to G, along with battery life, the number of charge cycles the battery is rated for, letter grades for durability and repairability, and any applicable IP rating for protection from dust and water. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Google Forcing Some Remote Workers To Come Back 3 Days a Week or Lose Their Jobs
technology - Posted On:2025-04-23 21:45:00 Source: slashdot
Five years removed from the onset of the Covid pandemic, Google is demanding that some remote employees return to the office if they want to keep their jobs and avoid being part of broader cost cuts at the company. CNBC reports: Several units within Google have told remote staffers that their roles may be at risk if they don't start showing up at the closest office for a hybrid work schedule, according to internal documents viewed by CNBC. Some of those employees were previously approved for remote work. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Google Gemini Has 350 Million Monthly Users, Reveals Court Hearing
technology - Posted On:2025-04-23 19:45:00 Source: slashdot
Google revealed in court that its Gemini AI chatbot reached 350 million monthly active users worldwide as of March 2025 -- up from 9 million daily users in October 2024. TechCrunch reports: Usage of Google's AI offerings has exploded in the last year. Gemini had just 9 million daily active users in October 2024, but last month, the company reportedly logged 35 million daily active users, according to its data. Gemini still lags behind the industry's most popular AI tools, however. Google estimates that ChatGPT had roughly 600 million monthly active users in March, according to the company's data shown in court. That puts ChatGPT on a similar user base to Meta AI, which CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in September was nearing 500 million monthly users. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Amazon's Starlink Rival Struggles To Ramp Up Satellite Production
technology - Posted On:2025-04-23 12:15:01 Source: slashdot
Amazon's internet-from-space venture is struggling to ramp up production, jeopardizing its ability to meet a government deadline to have more than 1,600 satellites in orbit by next summer. From a report: Project Kuiper has completed just a few dozen satellites so far, more than a year into its manufacturing program, according to three people familiar with the situation. The slow pace, combined with rocket launch delays, means the company will probably have to seek an extension from the Federal Communications Commission, said the people, who requested anonymity to discuss confidential matters. The agency, which has oversight of transmissions from space, expects the company to have half its planned constellation of 3,236 satellites operating by the end of July 2026. To meet that requirement, Amazon would have to at least quadruple the current rate of production, which has yet to consistently reach one satellite a day, two of the people said. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
UBS and Gartner Trim Smartphone, PC Forecasts Amid Tariff Fears
it - Posted On:2025-04-23 11:00:01 Source: slashdot
Analysts at UBS and Gartner have significantly reduced their growth forecasts for global PC and smartphone markets as a result of mounting pressures from trade tariffs and broader macroeconomic uncertainties that are expected to impact consumer demand through 2026. From a report: In a pair of research reports sent to their clients on Wednesday, UBS and Gartner revised down their global PC shipments forecast for 2025 and 2026 from previous estimates of 5% and 4% growth to just 2% for both years, citing the potential impact of trade policy and macroeconomic headwinds. The investment bank and Gartner also cut their global smartphone shipment growth forecast for 2025 to 1% (1,235 million units) from 2%, while reducing its 2026 projection from 1% growth to flat at 1,235 million units. The outlook is particularly grim for the US market, which accounts for 24% of global PC units and 31% of global PC value. UBS expects the region to be disproportionately affected by tariff measures, projecting US PC demand could decline by 1.1% in 2025 before registering a modest 0.8% recovery in 2026, significantly underperforming compared to the mid-single-digit growth forecasts for other regions. Read more of this story at Slashdot.