L4s Bot

Chinese-made phones are calling the shots in Africa as they beat global giants Samsung and Apple::undefined

Online vape seller has ‘no intention of stopping’ shipments to Australia, despite nationwide ban — ‘We have no intention of stopping just because of one twat in Canberra.’::The New Zealand-based seller issued a notice to its Australian customers that shipments will continue regardless of the government's vape reform.

YouTube Music team laid off by Google while workers testified to Austin City Council about working conditions::Some workers learned of the YouTube Music layoffs while testifying to the Austin city council about Google's refusal to negotiate with the union.

Google is the new IBM::Years of being one-upped on AI and cracking down on innovation turned the poster child for Silicon Valley cool into a dinosaur.

Self-pay gas station pumps break across NZ as software can’t handle Leap Day::"We'll add it to our Outlook reminders..."

Some AI models get more accurate at maths if you ask them to respond as if they are a Star Trek character, ML engineers say::Researchers asking a chatbot to optimize its own prompts found it was best at solving grade-school math when acting like it was on Star Trek.

Musk's Neuralink brain implant company cited by FDA over animal lab issues::U.S. Food and Drug Administration inspectors found problems with record keeping and quality controls for animal experiments at Elon Musk's Neuralink, less than a month after the startup said it was cleared to test its brain implants in humans, according...

RTO doesn’t improve company value, but does make employees miserable: Study::Data is consistent with bosses using RTO to reassert control and scapegoat workers.

‘Grand Theft Auto’ Maker Rockstar Games Asks Workers to Return to Office Five Days a Week::Rockstar Games, a division of Take-Two Interactive Software Inc., will ask employees to return to the office five days a week beginning in April as the video-game maker enters the final stages of development on its next game, the hotly...

Arizona attorney general sues software company RealPage, residential landlords; accuses them of conspiring to illegally raise rents::The suit alleges that landlords conspired with RealPage and used that information to conduct a price-fixing conspiracy.

EA to Lay Off Around 670 Workers, Sunsetting Games, 'Moving Away From Licensed IPs'::Electronic Arts has announced that it, too, is undergoing mass layoffs, with plans to let go 5% of its total global staff, or roughly 670 individuals.

Up to 30% of Apple Vision Pro Returns Are Because Users Don't Get It, Analyst Says::While Vision Pro returns were uncommon, many came down to owners not figuring out its spatial computing.

Google CEO says Gemini AI diversity errors are ‘completely unacceptable’::In an internal memo, Google CEO Sundar Pichai told employees that the historically inaccurate photos generated by the company’s Gemini AI were ‘completely unacceptable.’

10 Reasons You Should Switch From Chrome to Firefox.::The best browser sync out there.

Leaks for Windows 11 laptop with Snapdragon X Elite show a CPU that’s a serious threat to Apple’s M3::Is Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite the laptop processor to watch for 2024?

Maker uses Raspberry Pi and AI to block noisy neighbor's music by hacking nearby Bluetooth speakers::Roni Bandini is using a Raspberry Pi to power his AI-driven assault against his neighbor's regular 9am reggaeton music.

No, electric vehicle sales aren’t dropping. Here’s what’s really going on::Tesla has been slashing prices. Ford just cut the price of its Mustang Mach-E, too, plus it cut back production of its electric pickup. And General Motors is thinking about bringing back plug-in hybrids, arguably a step back from EVs.

AT&T is giving customers a $5 credit for its cellphone outage. Some angry customers say it's not enough.::AT&T announced a $5 credit toward a future phone bill and said it "let down many of our customers" as a result of the outage.

Google says its AI image-generator would sometimes 'overcompensate' for diversity::Google apologized Friday for its faulty rollout of a new artificial intelligence image-generator, acknowledging that in some cases the tool would “overcompensate” in seeking a diverse range of people even when such a range didn’t make sense.

A lot of Redditors hate the Reddit IPO | Reddit warned us that its users were a risk factor, and boy do they sound excited about shorting its stock.::Reddit seems like a likely candidate for a meme stock. But the actual reaction suggests that r/WallStreetBets isn’t going to send the stock to the moon.

Reddit has never turned a profit in nearly 20 years, but filed to go public anyway::Reddit, the message board site known for its chronically online userbase and for originating much internet discourse, filed for its long-anticipated initial public offering on Thursday.

Remember when Spez said it was "It's time we grow up and behave like an adult company"? Apparently, that means paying himself $193 million and single-handedly tanking Reddit's profitability right b...::undefined

Google Will Pay Reddit $60M a Year to Use Its Content for AI: Report::The move boosts revenue for Reddit ahead of its planned stock launch.

TikTok, Facebook and YouTube sued by New York City for alleged harm to kids’ mental health ::New York City Mayor Eric Adams said Wednesday that his administration has filed a lawsuit against the parent companies of TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat and YouTube, alleging that their services are damaging to the mental...

Cancer therapy approved by FDA uses body’s own cells as a ‘living drug’::undefined

Dell RTO mandate said to be a stealth layoff, for women::Employees feel frustrated by lack of communication and bosses' inability to tell them which offices are open

Google apologizes for ‘missing the mark’ after Gemini generated racially diverse Nazis::Google says it’s aware of historically inaccurate results for its Gemini AI image generator, following criticism that it depicted historically white groups as people of color.

X suspends account of Navalny's wife::The widow of Alexei Navalny, Yulia Navalnaya, has had her X account restored after it was briefly suspended for unknown reasons. Meanwhile, his brother has been put on Russia's wanted list. Listen to a Daily podcast special on the Russian opposition after Navalny's death as you scroll.

It’s a dark time to be a tech worker right now::Nearly 300,000 tech employees have been laid off since last year, data shows.

GOP warning of 'national security threat' is about Russia wanting nuclear weapon in space: Sources::The White House will meet with congressional leadership as a top Republican is requesting President Biden declassify information on a "serious national security threat"

Over 170 million fake reviews were removed from Maps and Search thanks to Google's new algorithm::undefined

Wi-Fi jamming to knock out cameras suspected in nine Minnesota burglaries -- smart security systems vulnerable as tech becomes cheaper and easier to acquire::A serial burglar in Edina, Minnesota is suspected of using a Wi-Fi jammer to knock out connected security cameras before stealing and making off with lots of loot. Such...

Walmart in talks to buy Vizio for more than $2 bln, WSJ reports::Walmart is in talks to buy smart-television manufacturer Vizio for more than $2 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday, a move that could bolster its advertising business and give it control of more than a fifth of the U.S. television market.

Australia to criminalise ‘doxxing’ behaviour — after pro-Palestine activists publish names, photos and details of Jewish WhatsApp users::undefined

Fearing social media backlash, companies are using all kinds of euphemisms to avoid being straightforward about layoffs — ‘right-sized’, ‘org changes’, ‘simplified operating model’::Managers are running out of ways to say you no longer have a job, but the way the bad news is delivered is more important than ever.

The White House wants to 'cryptographically verify' videos of Joe Biden so viewers don't mistake them for AI deepfakes::Biden's AI advisor Ben Buchanan said a method of clearly verifying White House releases is "in the works."

Walmart, Delta, Chevron and Starbucks are using AI to monitor employee messages::Aware uses AI to analyze companies' employee messages across Slack, Microsoft Teams, Zoom and other communications services.

TurboTax maker Intuit spent millions in record lobbying blitz amid threats to tax prep industry::undefined

Tech Used to Be Bleeding Edge, Now it’s Just Bleeding | After a decade of scandals and half-assed product launches, people are no longer buying the future Big Tech is selling.::After a decade of scandals and half-assed product launches, people are no longer buying the future Big Tech is selling.

New images reveal what Neptune and Uranus really look like::Neptune is fondly known for being a rich blue, and Uranus green—but a new study has revealed that the two ice giants are actually far closer in color than typically thought.

Google’s CEO faces employee questions about layoffs — “Why has there been such an extraordinary effort to limit the internal visibility of layoffs announcements?”::During a recent TGIF all-hands meeting, Google CEO Sundar Pichai addressed what sources describe as a growing morale crisis inside the company.

Apple employees outnumbered customers at Vision Pro launch in San Francisco's Union Square::Apple’s new Vision Pro headset drew a sparse but eager crowd to San Francisco’s Union Square on Friday, for pickups and demos.

Unprofitable SF tech giant Okta lays off 400 workers, dozens in California::Okta, the San Francisco-based maker of identity and access tech, is laying off 400 workers, including 83 in California. CEO Todd McKinnon announced the news.

AMD’s new CPU hits 132fps in Fortnite without a graphics card::Also get 49fps in BG3, 119fps in CS2, and 41fps in Cyberpunk 2077 using the new AMD Ryzen 8700G, all without the need for an extra CPU cooler.

Jack Dorsey's Block lays off 'large number' of staffers, adding to wave of tech industry cuts::Dorsey told staff in a Tuesday memo that a "large number" of Block employees, including those at Cash App and Square, were being laid off.

China Installed More Solar Panels Last Year Than the U.S. Has in Total::China installed more new solar capacity last year than the total amount ever installed in any other country.

We Asked A.I. to Create the Joker. It Generated a Copyrighted Image.::Artists and researchers are exposing copyrighted material hidden within A.I. tools, raising fresh legal questions.

HP CEO Says They Brick Printers That Use Third-Party Ink Because of … Hackers::The company says it wants to protect you from “viruses.” Experts are skeptical.