Slashdot

Apple has rebranded its streaming service Apple TV+ to simply Apple TV, further blurring the already confusing line between the Apple TV device, the Apple TV app, and the Apple TV service. As John Gruber notes, users can now "watch Apple TV in Apple TV on Apple TV." From Daring Fireball: In some ways, I get it. Like, if you're telling someone how much you enjoy Slow Horses and they ask how to watch it, it's more natural and conversational to just say "It's on Apple TV." That's what most people say. That's what I say -- and as part of my job, I completely understand the difference between Apple TV the device, Apple TV the (free) app, and Apple TV+ the (paid) streaming service. But right there in Apple's own "About Apple TV" description, you see just how overused "Apple TV" now is. You can watch Apple TV in Apple TV on Apple TV -- the paid service in the free app on the set-top box. But you can watch any streaming service you want on the box, in that service's own app. But many of those services are also available in the Apple TV app. And the Apple TV streaming service is also available on just about all other popular set-top hardware platforms. So don't need an Apple TV to watch Apple TV. It's a bit like Abbott and Costello's classic "Who's on First" routine.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

schwit1 shares a report from Hackread: On October 3, 2025, Hackread.com published an in-depth report in which hackers claimed to have stolen 989 million records from 39 major companies worldwide by exploiting a Salesforce vulnerability. The group demanded that Salesforce and the affected firms enter negotiations before October 10, 2025, warning that if their demands were ignored, they would release the entire dataset. The hackers, identifying themselves as "Scattered Lapsus$ Hunters," a collective said to combine elements of Scattered Spider, Lapsus$, and ShinyHunters, have now published data allegedly belonging to 6 of the 39 targeted companies. The companies named in the leak are as follows: Fujifilm, GAP, INC., Vietnam Airlines, Engie Resources, Quantas Airways Limited, and Albertsons Companies, Inc. In all 6 leaks, the record contains personal details of customers, business, including email addresses, full names, addresses, passport numbers, phone numbers. The hackers said on Telegram that they will not be releasing any additional information, stating, "A lot of people are asking what else will be leaked. Nothing else will be leaked. Everything that was leaked was leaked, we have nothing else to leak, and obviously, the things we have cannot be leaked for obvious reasons."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory is laying off around 550 employees, or roughly 11% of its workforce, as part of an effort to "restructure and establish an appropriate size to ensure future success." According to JPL Director Dave Gallagher, the job cuts "are not related to the current government shutdown." CNBC reports: JPL is a research and development lab funded by NASA -- the federal space agency -- and managed by the California Institute of Technology. "While not easy, I believe that taking these actions now will help the Lab transform at the scale and pace necessary to help achieve humanity's boldest ambitions in space," Gallagher wrote in a separate mekor to JPL employees and contractors. Gallagher, in the public announcement, noted that the reorganization of JPL began in July, and "over the past few months, we have communicated openly with employees about the challenges and hard choices ahead." "This week's action, while not easy, is essential to securing JPL's future by creating a leaner infrastructure, focusing on our core technical capabilities, maintaining fiscal discipline, and positioning us to compete in the evolving space ecosystem -- all while continuing to deliver on our vital work for NASA and the nation," Gallagher wrote. Gallagher said that JPL employees will be notified of their status on Tuesday, and the "new Lab structure ... will become effective Wednesday."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Register: Security researchers have resurrected a 12-year-old data-stealing attack on web browsers to pilfer sensitive info from Android devices. The attack, dubbed Pixnapping, has yet to be mitigated. Conceptually, it's the equivalent of a malicious Android app being able to screenshot other apps or websites. It allows a malicious Android application to access and leak information displayed in other Android apps or on websites. It can, for example, steal data displayed in apps like Google Maps, Signal, and Venmo, as well as from websites like Gmail (mail.google.com). It can even steal 2FA codes from Google Authenticator. "First, the malicious app opens the target app (e.g., Google Authenticator), submitting its pixels for rendering," explained [Alan Wang, a PhD candidate at UC Berkeley]. "Second, the malicious app picks the coordinates of a target pixel whose color it wants to steal. Suppose for example it wants to steal a pixel that is part of the screen region where a 2FA character is known to be rendered by Google Authenticator, and that this pixel is either white (if nothing was rendered there) or non-white (if part of a 2FA digit was rendered there). Third, the malicious app causes some graphical operations whose rendering time is long if the target pixel is non-white and short if it is white. The malicious app does this by opening some malicious activities (i.e., windows) in front of the target app. Finally, the malicious app measures the rendering time per frame of the above graphical operations to determine whether the target pixel was white or non-white. These last few steps are repeated for as many pixels as needed to run OCR over the recovered pixels and guess the original content." The researchers have demonstrated Pixnapping on five devices running Android versions 13 to 16 (up until build id BP3A.250905.014): Google Pixel 6, Google Pixel 7, Google Pixel 8, Google Pixel 9, and Samsung Galaxy S25. Android 16 is the latest operating system version. Other Android devices have not been tested, but the mechanism that allows the attack to work is typically available. A malicious Android app implementing Pixnapping would not require any special permissions in its manifest file, the authors say. The researchers detail the attack in a paper (PDF) titled "Pixnapping: Bringing Pixel Stealing out of the Stone Age."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

SpaceX's Starship megarocket successfully completed its 11th test flight, achieving major milestones like engine relight, satellite deployment, and a controlled splashdown in the Indian Ocean. From a report: This mission marks the second clean test run for Version 2, following a successful showing during its last test mission in August. Earlier this year, however, Starship Version 2 suffered three in-flight failures and an explosive accident during ground testing. Today's test mission is expected to be the last for the current iteration of Starship prototypes. The company has said it will debut a scaled up Version 3 for the next flight. You can watch a recording of the launch on YouTube.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The FCC has forced major U.S. online retailers to remove millions of listings for prohibited Chinese-made electronics, including products from Huawei, ZTE, Hikvision, and Dahua, citing national security risks. Reuters reports: FCC Chair Brendan Carr said in an interview [on Friday] that the items removed are either on a U.S. list of barred equipment or were not authorized by the agency, including items like home security cameras and smart watches from companies including Huawei, Hangzhou Hikvision, ZTE, and Dahua Technology Company. Carr said companies are putting new processes in place to prevent future prohibited items as a result of FCC oversight. "We're going to keep our efforts up," Carr said. The FCC issued a new national security notice reminding companies of prohibited items including video surveillance equipment. Carr said the items could allow China to "surveil Americans, disrupt communications networks and otherwise threaten U.S. national security."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Palmer Luckey's defense tech firm Anduril has unveiled EagleEye, an AI-powered mixed-reality combat helmet built in partnership with Meta. The system integrates AR displays, spatial audio, and drone control to create what Luckey calls "a new teammate" for soldiers. "The idea of an AI partner embedded in your display has been imagined for decades. EagleEye is the first time it's real," said Luckey. The Verge reports: Anduril, which also manufactures border control tech, lethal drones, and military aircraft, has been developing EagleEye since its inception, and already provides software for the Army's existing MR goggles, based on Microsoft's HoloLens hardware. Its partnership with Meta was announced this May, and the company told TechCrunch at the time that the collaboration was to develop EagleEye. It's a reunion of sorts for Luckey and Mark Zuckerberg, after Meta purchased Luckey's then-start-up Oculus in 2014 and fired the founder three years later.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: Britain said on Monday it had issued U.S. internet forum site 4chan with a $26,644 fine for failing to provide information about the risk of illegal content on its service, marking the first penalty under the new online safety regime. Media regulator Ofcom said 4chan had not responded to its request for a copy of its illegal harms risk assessment nor a second request relating to its qualifying worldwide. Ofcom said it would take action against any service which "flagrantly fails to engage with Ofcom and their duties under the Online Safety Act" and they should expect to face penalties. The act, which is designed to protect children and vulnerable users from illegal content online, has caused tension between U.S. tech companies and Britain. Critics of the law have said it threatens free speech and targets U.S. companies. Technology minister Liz Kendall said the government "fully backed" Ofcom in taking action. "This fine is a clear warning to those who fail to remove illegal content or protect children from harmful material," she said. 4chan and Kiwi Farms filed a lawsuit in the United States against Ofcom in August, arguing that the threats and fines issued by the regulator "constitute foreign judgements that would restrict speech under U.S. law." The lawsuit claims that both entities are entirely based in the U.S., have no operations in the U.K., and therefore are not subject to its local laws.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Google's viral Nano Banana AI image editor is being woven into Search, NotebookLM, and Photos. Engadget reports: Perhaps the most notable integration here is with NotebookLM. Nano Banana is being used to drastically change up Video Overviews, offering up six new styles like watercolor and anime. It also now generates contextual illustrations based on sources and there's a new option for micro-videos called Briefs. For the uninitiated, Video Overviews is a neat little tool available to NotebookLM users that automatically generates explainer videos from documents. It can even whip up a narrated slideshow with visuals. The AI-heavy update starts rolling out to Pro users this week and to all users in "the upcoming weeks." Search integration offers new ways to make and edit images while using the official Google app. The company says folks can use a chat prompt to, say, ask the bot to create a stylized version of a pre-existing image. Additionally, photos can be snapped directly from the Lens tool and then edited via the AI. This is rolling out right now in English for US customers, with more countries and languages coming in the near future. We don't have any actual information as to what the Photos integration will look like, with Google simply saying it's bringing Nano Banana to the platform in "the weeks ahead."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

"Dutch authorities have temporarily nationalized Nexperia, owned by Chinese company Wingtech, over fears of critical product unavailability," writes longtime Slashdot reader evil_aaronm. Reuters reports: The Hague invoked never-before-used powers under a Dutch law known as the "Availability of Goods Act." The decision led to a 10% fall in Wingtech's shares in Shanghai on Monday. The Dutch government will not take ownership of Nexperia, but it will now have the power to reverse or block management decisions it considers harmful. The company's regular production is continuing. [...] Wingtech called the Dutch government's intervention in Nexperia, once part of Dutch electronics group Philips, "excessive interference driven by geopolitical bias." Wingtech also alleged that non-Chinese Nexperia executives had tried to forcibly alter the company's equity structure through legal proceedings in a "cloaked power grab" on the company. A copy of an Amsterdam commercial court ruling dated October 7 and seen by Reuters showed that the court decided on October 1 to suspend Wingtech CEO Zhang Xuezheng from his position as executive director at Nexperia after finding "well founded reasons to doubt" the company was pursuing correct management policy or actions under Dutch civil law. It appointed Dutch businessman Guido Dierick to take Zhang's position with a "deciding vote", and transferred control of almost all of Nexperia's shares to a Dutch lawyer for management. The Dutch state and the company's labour council had supported the moves, the document showed. [...] In its statement, the Dutch government said that administrative problems at Nexperia posed a threat to the company's "crucial technological knowledge" without elaborating. "The loss of these capabilities could pose a risk to Dutch and European economic security," it said. Nexperia is one of the world's largest makers of simple computer chips such as diodes and transistors, though it also develops more advanced technologies such as "wide gap" semiconductors used in electrical settings and useful for electric cars, chargers and AI data centres. Wingtech said in a filing to the Shanghai stock exchange on Monday that its control over Nexperia would be temporarily restricted due to the Dutch order and court rulings, affecting decision making and operational efficiency.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Owners of some Jeep Wrangler 4xe hybrids have been left stranded after installing an over-the-air software update this weekend. The automaker pushed out a telematics update for the Uconnect infotainment system that evidently wasn't ready, resulting in cars losing power while driving and then becoming stranded. Stranded Jeep owners have been detailing their experiences in forum and Reddit posts, as well as on YouTube. The buggy update doesn't appear to brick the car immediately. Instead, the failure appears to occur while driving -- a far more serious problem. For some, this happened close to home and at low speed, but others claim to have experienced a powertrain failure at highway speeds. Jeep pulled the update after reports of problems, but the software had already downloaded to many owners' cars by then. A member of Stellantis' social engagement team told 4xe owners at a Jeep forum to ignore the update pop-up if they haven't installed it yet. Owners were also advised to avoid using either hybrid or electric modes if they had updated their 4xe and not already suffered a powertrain failure. Yesterday, Jeep pushed out a fix.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Car manufacturers decided they would rather cheat to prioritise "customer convenience" and sell cars than comply with the law on deadly pollutants, the first day of the largest group action trial in English legal history has been told. From a report: More than a decade after the original "dieselgate" scandal broke, lawyers representing 1.6 million diesel car owners in the UK argue that manufacturers deliberately installed software to rig emissions tests. They allege the "prohibited defeat devices" could detect when the cars were under test conditions and ensure that harmful NOx emissions were kept within legal limits, duping regulators and drivers. Should the claim be upheld, estimated damages could exceed $8 billion. The three-month hearing that opened at London's high court on Monday will focus on vehicles sold by five manufacturers -- Mercedes, Ford, Renault, Nissan and Peugeot/Citroen -- from 2009. In "real world" conditions, when driven on the road, lawyers argue, the cars produced much higher levels of emissions. The judgment on the five lead defendants will also bind other manufacturers including Jaguar Land Rover, Vauxhall/Opel, Volkswagen/Porsche, BMW, FCA/Suzuki, Volvo, Hyundai-Kia, Toyota and Mazda, whose cases are not being heard to reduce the case time and costs.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

BrianFagioli writes: TP-Link has officially achieved the first successful Wi-Fi 8 connection using a prototype device built through an industry collaboration. The company confirmed that both the beacon and data throughput worked, marking a real-world validation of next-generation wireless tech. It's an early glimpse of what the next leap in speed and reliability could look like, even as the Wi-Fi 8 standard itself remains under development. The Verge adds: Like its predecessor, Wi-Fi 8 will utilize 2.4GHz, 5GHz, and 6GHz bands with a theoretical maximum channel bandwidth of 320MHz and peak data rate of 23Gbps, but aims to improve real-world performance and connection reliability. The goal is to provide better performance in environments with low signal, or under high network loads, where an increasing number of devices are sharing the same connection.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Chinese companies now produce most of the world's freely available AI models. DeepSeek leads Hugging Face in popularity. Chinese firms like Alibaba receive higher ratings than OpenAI and Meta on LMArena. The site uses blind tests to measure user preferences. Chinese developers ship open models more frequently than American rivals. Irene Solaiman is chief policy officer at Hugging Face. She said Chinese companies build their user base by shipping frequently and quickly. American companies like OpenAI and Google keep their best models proprietary. Meta once led in open AI models. Mark Zuckerberg argued last year that the world would benefit if AI companies shared their technology freely. He pledged Meta would release its AI openly. The company has since become more cautious. Zuckerberg wrote in a new essay that Meta might need to keep the best models for itself.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

California Governor Gavin Newsom signed three bills on Monday that establish the nation's most comprehensive framework for regulating how technology companies interact with minors. AB 56 requires social media platforms to display health warnings to users under 18. A child must view a skippable ten-second warning upon logging on each day. An unskippable thirty-second warning must appear if a child spends more than three hours on a platform. That warning repeats after each additional hour. The warnings must state that social media "can have a profound risk of harm to the mental health and well-being of children and adolescents." Minnesota passed a similar law in July. SB 243 makes California the first state to regulate AI companion chatbots. The law takes effect January 1, 2026. Companies must implement age verification and disclose that interactions are artificially generated. Chatbots cannot represent themselves as healthcare professionals. Companies must offer break reminders to minors and prevent them from viewing sexually explicit images. The legislation gained momentum after teenager Adam Raine died by suicide following conversations with OpenAI's ChatGPT. A Colorado family filed suit against Character AI after their daughter's suicide following problematic conversations with the company's chatbots. AB 1043 requires device-makers like Apple and Google to collect birth dates when parents set up devices for children. Device-makers must group users into four age brackets and share this information with apps. Google, Meta, OpenAI, and Snap supported the bill. The Motion Picture Association opposed it.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

A demo of educational AI-powered tools by a Microsoft product manager (in March of 2024) showed "how AI has the possibility to transform various job sectors and the education system," according to one report. But that demo "includes a segment on Copilot in Excel that is likely to resonate with AI-wary software developers," writes long-time Slashdot theodp: The Copilot in Excel segment purports to show how even teachers who were too "afraid of" or "intimidated" to use Excel in the past can now just use natural language prompts to conduct Excel analysis. But Copilot advises the teacher there are no 'outliers' in the exam scores for their 17 students, whose test scores range from 27%-100%. (This is apparently due to Copilot's choice of an inappropriate outlier detection method for this size population and score range). Fittingly, the student whose 27% score is confidently-but-incorrectly deemed to be of no concern by Copilot is named after Michael Scott, the largely incompetent and unprofessional boss of The Office. (Microsoft also named the other exam takers after characters from The Office). The additional Copilot student score "analysis" touted by Microsoft in the demo is also less than impressive. It includes: 1. A vertical bar chart that fails to convey the test score distribution that a histogram would have (a rookie chart choice mistake), 2. A horizontal bar chart of student scores that only displays every other student's name and shows no score values (a rookie formatting error)... So, will teachers — like programmers — be spending a significant amount of time in the future reviewing, editing, and refining the outputs of their AI agent helpers? "Not only does it illustrate how the realities of AI assistants sometimes fall maddeningly short of the promises," argues the original submission. "The demo also shows how AI vendors and customers alike sometimes forget to review promotional AI content closely in all the AI excitement!"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Off the southwest cost of Italy, a remotely operated submarine made "a significant and rare discovery," reports the Independent — a vast white coral reef that was 80 metres tall (262 feet) and 2 metres wide (6.56 feet) "containing important species and fossil traces." Often dubbed the "rainforests of the sea", coral reefs are of immense scientific interest due to their status as some of the planet's richest marine ecosystems, harbouring millions of species. They play a crucial role in sustaining marine life but are currently under considerable threat... hese impressive formations are composed of deep-water hard corals, commonly referred to as "white corals" because of their lack of colour, specifically identified as Lophelia pertusa and Madrepora oculata species. The reef also contains black corals, solitary corals, sponges, and other ecologically important species, as well as fossil traces of oysters and ancient corals, the Italian Research Council said. It called them "true geological testimonies of a distant past." Mission leader Giorgio Castellan said the finding was "exceptional for Italian seas: bioconstructions of this kind, and of such magnitude, had never been observed in the Dohrn Canyon, and are rarely seen elsewhere in our Mediterranean". The discovery will help scientists understand the ecological role of deep coral habitats and their distribution, especially in the context of conservation and restoration efforts, he added. The undersea research was funded by the EU. Thanks to davidone (Slashdot reader #12,252) for sharing the article.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader shared this report from The Wrap Tesla this weekend introduced a new "Tron: Ares" mode, giving drivers an opportunity to turn their on-screen vehicles into the glowing Light Cycles that have been a big part of the Disney franchise since 1982. The optional update started rolling out on Friday, as Tron: Ares debuted in theaters. Tesla announced the update on X: "The grid has expanded to your Tesla — Tron: Ares update rolling out now." The feature is activated in Tesla's Toybox "infotainment" system, and turns the driver's vehicle avatar into a red Light Cycle. For drivers who have the "ambient lighting" feature, the mode will also expand the theme throughout the cabin. There was also a sleek black Tesla Optimus robot at the premier of Tron: Ares. Ironically, the Hollywood Reporter writes that by box office figures, "Tron is in big trouble," selling fewer tickets than expected (despite the movie's $180 million pre-marketing budget). While Tron's audience reviews gave it an 86% score on Rotten Tomatoes, its score with critics is just 57%. The Los Angeles Times says the movie "has glowing style, but its storytelling doesn't compute." (Or, as the New York Times puts it, "Who needs logic when you have neon?")

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Long-time Slashdot reader Qbertino writes: German IT news outlet Heise reports [German-language article] that the northern most state Schleswig-Holstein has, after half a year of frantic data migration work, successfully migrated their MS Outlook mail and groupware setups to a FOSS solution using Open-Xchange and Thunderbird. Stakeholders consider the move a major success and milestone to digital sovereignty and saving costs. This move makes the state a pioneer in Germany. As a next major step Schleswig-Holstein plans to migrate their authorities and administrations desktop PCs to Linux.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

"California Governor Gavin Newsom signed the 'California Opt Me Out Act', which will require web browsers to include an easy, universal way for users to opt out of data collection and sales," reports the blog 9to5Mac: [The law] requires browsers to provide a clear, one-click mechanism for Californians to opt out of data sharing across websites. The bill reads: "A business shall not develop or maintain a browser that does not include functionality configurable by a consumer that enables the browser to send an opt-out preference signal to businesses with which the consumer interacts through the browser...." Californians will need patience, though, as the law doesn't take effect until January 1, 2027. Americans in some states — including California, Texas, Colorado, New Jersey and Maryland — "have the option to make those opt-out demands automatic whenever they surf the web," reports the Washington Post. "But they can only do so if they use small browsers that voluntarily offer that option, such as DuckDuckGo, Firefox and Brave. What's new in California's law is that all browsers must give people the same option." That means soon in California, just using Google's Chrome, Apple's Safari and Microsoft's Edge can command companies not to sell your data or pass it along for ad targeting... It's an imperfect but potent and simple way to flex privacy rights — and becomes even more powerful with another simple privacy measure in California. Starting on January 1, California residents can fill out an online form once to completely and repeatedly wipe their data from hundreds of data brokers that package your personal information for sale. But their article also suggests other ways readers can "try a one-click privacy option now." "[S]ome national companies respect one-click privacy opt-out requests from everyone... This happens automatically if you use DuckDuckGo and Brave. You need to change a setting with Firefox." "Download Privacy Badger: The software from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a consumer privacy advocacy group, works in the background to order websites not to sell information they're collecting about you." "Use Permission Slip from Consumer Reports. Give the app basic information, and it will help you do much of the legwork to tell companies not to sell your information or to delete it, if you have the right to do so."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.