Tesla is Now Selling a $1,900 Electric Cyberquad ATV for Kids
Tesla has launched a mini Cyberquad designed for the kiddos starting in 2-4 weeks if you order one right now from its website. From a report: The Tesla ‘Cyberquad for Kids’ is available to purchase on Tesla’s site for $1,900 – a steep price relative to your average Power Wheels, but the lowest-priced vehicle in Tesla’s existing lineup by far. And the … ⌘ Read more

Microsoft’s New Windows Prompts Try To Stop People Downloading Chrome
Microsoft has never been a fan of Windows users downloading Chrome instead of using Edge, but the company has now stepped up its campaign to keep people using its built-in browser. From a report: Windows 10 and Windows 11 have both started displaying new prompts when people navigate to the Chrome download page, in an effort to discourage pe … ⌘ Read more

Apple Tells Suppliers iPhone Demand Has Slowed as Holidays Near
Apple, suffering from a global supply crunch, is now confronting a different problem: slowing demand. From a report: The company has told its component suppliers that demand for the iPhone 13 lineup has weakened, people familiar with the matter said, signaling that some consumers have decided against trying to get the hard-to-find item. Already, … ⌘ Read more

Many Severe Covid-19 Survivors Die Within a Year, Study Finds
fahrbot-bot shares a report from Gizmodo: New research this week finds that people hospitalized with severe covid-19 often pay a heavy price afterward. The study concluded that these survivors were more than twice as likely to die in the subsequent 12 months compared to people who had tested negative for the virus. This relatively increased risk of … ⌘ Read more

Crypto CEOs Will Testify Before US House Panel
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Crypto Briefing: The U.S. House Committee on Financial Services has announced that several cryptocurrency executives will testify at a panel hearing. Jeremy Allaire, CEO of the USD Coin company Circle, is first on the list of executives that will attend the panel. The list also includes Sam Bankman-Fried, CEO and founder of the crypto exchan … ⌘ Read more

Trigger of Rare Blood Clots In AstraZeneca COVID-19 Vaccine Found
Long-time Slashdot reader tlhIngan writes: The AstraZeneca vaccine, one of the few approved vaccines to fight COVID-19, was under fire earlier this year for causing blood clots. While the vaccine is still approved for use, and is being used, scientists have been working hard to figure out the cause. The main trigger appears to be caused by … ⌘ Read more

Renewable Energy Has ‘Another Record Year of Growth’ Says IEA
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: It has been another record year for renewable energy, despite the Covid-19 pandemic and rising costs for raw materials around the world, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). About 290GW of new renewable energy generation capacity, mostly in the form of wind turbines and solar panels, … ⌘ Read more

Meta Allows More Cryptocurrency Ads
Meta is backing away from its longstanding (if not absolute) ban on cryptocurrency ads. Engadget reports: As CNBC reports, Meta has greatly loosened its ban by expanding the number of regulatory licenses it accepts from three to 27. The crypto landscape has “matured and stabilized” enough to justify the change of heart, the company said, including an increased amount of government regulation that sets … ⌘ Read more

EU Official: Semiconductor Independence Is Impossible
According to Margrethe Vestager, EU’s Commissioner for Competition, it’s unlikely that the EU will ever become completely independent from other countries as far as semiconductor supply is concerned. Tom’s Hardware reports: Leading contract makers of semiconductors – such as Intel, Samsung Foundry, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. – spend around $30 b … ⌘ Read more

Apple Loses Key Autos Engineer To Electric Aviation Startup Archer
Michael Schwekutsch, a director of engineering in the Apple Special Projects Group that’s reportedly working on self-driving cars, has left to join electric air taxi start-up Archer as its senior VP of engineering. Schwekutsch noted the change on his LinkedIn page on Wednesday. CNBC reports: The move is the latest example of staff turnover … ⌘ Read more

HashiCorp’s IPO Will Place It Among the Most Richly Valued Open Source Tech Companies
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: The HashiCorp IPO intends to shoot the narrows between Thanksgiving and Christmas, with its first IPO pricing interval set to give it among the richest valuations of any technology company with a strong open source component to its core business. In a … ⌘ Read more

More Than a Third of World’s Population Have Never Used Internet, Says UN
Nearly 3 billion people – or 37% of the world’s population – have never used the internet, according to the United Nations, despite the Covid-19 pandemic driving people online. From a report: The UN’s International Telecommunication Union (ITU) estimated that 96% of the 2.9 billion people who have not accessed the web live in … ⌘ Read more

Qualcomm’s New Always-On Smartphone Camera Is a Privacy Nightmare
At the Snapdragon Tech Summit 2021 yesterday, Qualcomm introduced their new always-on camera capabilities in the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor, which is expected to arrive in high-end Android phones early next year. The company says this new feature will let users wake and unlock their phone without having to pick it up or have it instantly lock … ⌘ Read more

Jack Dorsey’s Square Changes Corporate Name To Block
Square, the financial services and digital payments company founded by Jack Dorsey and Jim McKelvey in 2010, announced today that it is changing its name to Block. From a press release: Block will be the name for the company as a corporate entity. The Square name has become synonymous with the company’s Seller business, which provides an integrated ecosystem of commerce sol … ⌘ Read more

Reddit Introduces New Real-Time Features To Keep Users Engaged
Social media platform Reddit said on Wednesday it would launch several real-time features, including voting animations and typing indicators, […] to boost engagement on the platform that has fueled a ‘meme-stock’ frenzy in the recent past. Reuters reports: While Reddit has been a well-known internet name for years, attracting millions of experts … ⌘ Read more

US Confirms Nation’s First Case of Omicron Covid Variant In California
An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNBC: U.S. health officials have confirmed the country’s first case of the new, heavily mutated coronavirus variant called omicron in California, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday. White House chief medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci said the individual, who was f … ⌘ Read more

Stripe is On a Hiring Spree. But It’s Also Rescinding Job Offers and Angering Engineers.
The prevailing narrative about tech workers assumes that they have more power than ever before. This even has a term – the Great Resignation. But at the booming, much-revered payments company Stripe, some applicants have found themselves accepting job offers only to learn they have been rescin … ⌘ Read more

Twitch Unleashes AI Tool To Spot Banned Users
Twitch has launched a tool that uses machine learning to detect users trying to rejoin chat channels from which they have been banned for abusive behaviour. The gaming-focused livestreaming website said “bad actors” often created new accounts to continue to harass people. From a report: But the new system would warn streamers and chat moderators if a user was a “likely” or “possibl … ⌘ Read more

Windows 11 is Getting Some Much-needed Taskbar and Start Menu Improvements
Windows 11’s taskbar is a giant step back in usability compared to Windows 10, and now Microsoft is starting to make improvements. A new update that’s currently being tested by Windows Insiders brings the clock and date back to the taskbar on secondary or multiple monitors. From a report: It’s a change that multiple monitor u … ⌘ Read more

Delivery, Ride-Hailing Firms Fight EU Plan for Gig Workers
Companies that run food delivery and ride-hailing apps are concerned that the European Union will push for gig workers to be considered employees rather than self-employed under a forthcoming proposal aimed at bolstering their labor rights. From a report: The draft European Commission proposal, seen by Bloomberg, would apply to any company that controls digital w … ⌘ Read more

British Man Given 3D Printed Eye in World First, Hospital Says
A British man has become the first patient in the world to be fitted with a 3D printed eye, according to Moorfields Eye Hospital in London. From a report: Steve Verze, who is 47 and an engineer from Hackney, east London, was given the left eye on Thursday and first tried it for size earlier this month. Moorfields Eye Hospital said in a press rele … ⌘ Read more

WHO Says Omicron Has Been Found in 23 Countries Across the World
The World Health Organization said Wednesday that 23 countries across the world have reported cases of the highly mutated omicron Covid-19 variant. From a report: “At least 23 countries from five of six WHO regions have now reported cases of omicron and we expect that number to grow,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told repo … ⌘ Read more

Biden Administration Issues New Framework for Space Policy, With a Focus on Climate Change
Today, Vice President Kamala Harris’ office released a new framework for US space policy, detailing how the Biden administration plans to approach commercial, civil, and military space activity moving forward. From a report: Called the United States Space Priorities Framework, the document keep … ⌘ Read more

Apple Renews Bid To Halt Court-Ordered App Store Change
Apple is asking a higher court to halt a judge’s decision that will force changes to its App Store while a legal fight with Epic Games continues. From a report: Lawyers for the company filed Tuesday with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, seeking action by Dec. 8. Earlier this month, U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzales Rogers rejected Apple’s requ … ⌘ Read more

China To Close Loophole Used by Tech Firms for Foreign IPOs
China is planning to ban companies from going public on foreign stock markets through variable interest entities – Bloomberg reported Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter – closing a loophole long used by the country’s technology industry to raise capital from overseas investors. From the report: The ban, intended in part to address concer … ⌘ Read more

Thousands of AT&T Customers in the US Infected by New Data-stealing Malware
Thousands of networking devices belonging to AT&T Internet subscribers in the US have been infected with newly discovered malware that allows the devices to be used in denial-of-service attacks and attacks on internal networks, researchers said on Tuesday. From a report: The device model under attack is the EdgeMarc Enter … ⌘ Read more

Wanted: A Town Willing to Host a Dump for U.S. Nuclear Waste
The Biden administration is looking for communities willing to serve as temporary homes for tens of thousands of metric tons of nuclear waste currently stranded at power plants around the country. Bloomberg reports: The Energy Department filed (PDF) a public notice Tuesday that it is restarting the process for finding a voluntary host for spent nuclear fu … ⌘ Read more

Princeton Team Disables Long-Targeted Gene Behind Spread of Major Cancers
An anonymous reader writes: The mysterious ways cancer spreads through the body, a process known as metastasis, is what can make it such a difficult enemy to keep at bay. Researchers at Princeton University working in this area have been tugging at a particular thread for more than 15 years, focusing on a single gene centra … ⌘ Read more

Over 300,000 Android Users Have Downloaded These Banking Trojan Malware Apps, Say Security Researchers
Over 300,000 Android smartphone users have downloaded what turned out to be banking trojans after falling victim to malware that has bypassed detection by the Google Play app store. ZDNet reports: Detailed by cybersecurity researchers at ThreatFabric, the four different form … ⌘ Read more

Browser Extension Shows How Many Brands On Amazon Are Actually Just Amazon
A new browser extension promises to show you which products in your Amazon search results are sold by brands that are either owned by or are exclusive to Amazon, giving you a better idea of who’s selling what you’re buying. The Verge reports: It’s called Amazon Brand Detector, and it uses a list of Amazon brands created by T … ⌘ Read more

‘Massive’ Startup Wants To Rent Your Spare Compute Power To Pay For Apps
What if users could pay for apps or services not with money or attention, but with their spare compute power? A startup called “Massive” is working to take this concept “into the modern world as an alternative to charging users or pounding them with advertisements to generate revenue,” writes TechCrunch’s Alex Wilhelm. From th … ⌘ Read more

The Virtual Phone Farms Scammers Use To Set Up Fake Accounts
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Motherboard: When a scammer wants to set up an account on Amazon, Discord, or a spread of other online services, sometimes a thing that stands in their way is SMS verification. The site will require them to enter a phone number to receive a text message which they’ll then need to input back into the site. Sites of … ⌘ Read more

Microsoft Adds Buy Now, Pay Later Financing Option To Edge – And Everyone Hates It
Microsoft has decided to add “Buy Now, Pay Later” financing options to its Edge browser in the U.S. – and the overwhelming response has been negative. The Register reports: The Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) option pops up at the browser level (rather than on checkout at an ecommerce site) and permits users to sp … ⌘ Read more

Cyber Monday Online Sales Fall For the First Time Ever
Consumers logged online Monday and spent $10.7 billion, marking a 1.4% decrease from year-ago levels, according to data released Tuesday by Adobe Analytics. This year’s tally marks the first time that Adobe has tracked a slowdown in spending on major shopping days. CNBC reports: Despite the slowdown, Adobe expects the entire holiday season will see record-breaking … ⌘ Read more

FBI Document Shows What Data Can Be Obtained From Encrypted Messaging Apps
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Record: A recently discovered FBI training document shows that US law enforcement can gain limited access to the content of encrypted messages from secure messaging services like iMessage, Line, and WhatsApp, but not to messages sent via Signal, Telegram, Threema, Viber, WeChat, or … ⌘ Read more

SpaceX’s Starlink Is Testing Internet Service for Aircraft
SpaceX’s Starlink unit is testing its space-based internet service with several aircraft and wants to offer in-flight connection to airlines “as soon as possible,” a company vice president said. From a report: Starlink is in talks with several airlines about offering in-flight broadband connections, Jonathan Hofeller, vice president of commercial sales, sai … ⌘ Read more

NASA Postpones Spacewalk Citing ‘Debris Notification’ for ISS
Nasa has postponed a planned spacewalk outside the International Space Station due to flying “debris,” two weeks after Russia blew up one of its own satellites in a missile test that created clouds of zooming shrapnel in orbit. From a report: Washington’s space agency did not mention the Russian test in its announcement, but a Nasa official had warn … ⌘ Read more

Biden Administration Makes First Move on Data Privacy
The Biden administration is launching its first big effort on privacy policy by looking at how data privacy issues affect civil rights. From a report: The National Telecommunication and Information Administration (NTIA), the telecom unit of the Commerce Department, plans to hold “listening sessions” and seek comment on the intersection of privacy, equity and civil r … ⌘ Read more

Barbados, Formally Casting Off the Queen, Becomes a Republic
In the early hours of Tuesday, at a ceremony attended by hundreds of masked officials, a prince and at least one pop star, the Caribbean island of Barbados became a republic, cutting ties with Queen Elizabeth II and casting off the last major vestige of its colonial past. The New York Times: The nation swore in its first president, Sandra Mason, a former … ⌘ Read more

Amazon Launches Preview of New ‘AWS Private 5G’ Managed Service
At Amazon’s AWS re:Invent conference this morning, the company announced the preview of “AWS Private 5G,” which is a new service that aims to make it easy to deploy and manage your own private global network. From a report: The launch is meant to address the challenges companies are facing with leveraging 5G. AWS CEO Adam Selipsky said that with AWS Pri … ⌘ Read more

Facebook’s David Marcus, Creator of Embattled Diem Project, To Leave Company
David Marcus, one of the top executives at Meta Platforms and the co-creator of the yet-to-be-launched Diem digital currency, is leaving the company after seven years to pursue other projects. From a report: Marcus, who joined the Facebook parent company in 2014 from PayPal Holdings, ran the Messenger service for years befo … ⌘ Read more

Twitter Expands Safety Policy, Bans Posting Images of People Without Their Consent
Twitter updated its private information safety policy this morning to ban sharing images or videos of private individuals without their consent. From a report: The platform already banned users from sharing others’ personal information without permission, like their address or location, identity documents, non … ⌘ Read more

Moderna CEO Says Vaccines Likely Less Effective Against Omicron
The head of drugmaker Moderna said COVID-19 vaccines are unlikely to be as effective against the Omicron variant of the coronavirus as they have been previously, sparking fresh worry in financial markets about the trajectory of the pandemic. From a report: “There is no world, I think, where (the effectiveness) is the same level… we had with … ⌘ Read more

Razer’s Qualcomm-powered Handheld Console Leaks
Qualcomm appears to be collaborating with Razer on a new gaming handheld developer kit built around its upcoming Snapdragon G3X processor. From a report: Leaked slides published by VideoCardz call the device a “Snapdragon G3X Handheld Developer Kit,” suggesting it will primarily be aimed at software developers and manufacturers to help them build their own software and hardware … ⌘ Read more

UK Regulators Order Facebook-owner Meta To Sell Giphy
Regulators in the U.K. on Tuesday said they have directed Facebook parent company Meta to sell Giphy after finding “the takeover could reduce competition between social media platforms and increase Facebook’s already significant market power.” From a report: Facebook agreed to buy Giphy in May of last year for an estimated price of $400 million. The deal almost imme … ⌘ Read more

Finnish Researchers Say Their First Quantum Computer Is Up and Running
Finland’s first quantum computer was commissioned at a research center near the capital Helsinki, where scientists will use it to study next-generation computing power. From a report: The 5 quantum-bit computer was developed “to learn how to build a quantum computer, how to program one and how to operate one in the future,” Pekka Pu … ⌘ Read more

Finland Battles ‘Exceptional’ Malware Attack Spread by Phones
Finland is working to stop a flood of text messages of an unknown origin that are spreading malware. From a report: The messages with malicious links to malware called FluBot number in the millions, according to Aino-Maria Vayrynen, information security specialist at the National Cyber Security Centre. Telia Co AB, the country’s second-biggest telecommu … ⌘ Read more

Israel Authorizes Use of Phone Tracking Tech To Contain Spread of Omicron Covid Variant
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: Rights groups petitioned Israel’s top court on Monday to repeal new COVID-19 measures that authorize the country’s domestic intelligence service to use counter-terrorism phone tracking technology to contain the spread of the Omicron virus variant. … ⌘ Read more

‘Cyber Grinches’ Snatching Toys Should Be Stopped, Lawmakers Say
Lawmakers including Senators Richard Blumenthal and Chuck Schumer introduced a bill to crack down on “cyber Grinches” using bots to quickly snap up entire inventories of popular holiday toys and resell them at higher prices. Bloomberg reports: “This bill seeks to stop Cyber Grinch greed from ruining kids’ holidays,” Blumenthal says in a statement. … ⌘ Read more