US Records Its First Human Bird Flu Death
A 65-year-old patient in the United States with underlying medical conditions has died from bird flu. According to NBC News, “health officials considered the case to be the “country’s first severe human H5N1 infection.” From the report: The Louisiana Department of Health said the patient had been exposed to a combination of a backyard flock and wild birds. “The Department expresses its deepe … ⌘ Read more

Google Is Forming a New Team To Build AI That Can Simulate the Physical World
Google DeepMind is forming a new team to develop AI models capable of simulating the physical world. It’s being led by former OpenAI Sora co-lead Tim Brooks and builds on Google’s Gemini, Veo, and Genie projects. “DeepMind has ambitious plans to make massive generative models that simulate the world,” Brooks wrote on X. … ⌘ Read more

AMD Reveals Next-Gen Handheld Gaming PC Chips
At CES 2025, AMD unveiled the Z2, Z2 Go, and Z2 Extreme chipsets – all powered by Zen 5 CPU cores and designed for handheld gaming PCs. IGN reports: The AMD Zen 2 Extreme, along with lower-specced cousins the Z2 and Z2 Go, are powered by Zen 5 CPU cores. While the Zen 2 Extreme is using a RDNA 3.5-based GPU, the Z2 and Z2 Go are still using RDNA 3 and RDNA 2, respectively. This … ⌘ Read more

US Adds Tencent, CATL To List of Chinese Firms Aiding Beijing’s Military
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: The U.S. Defense Department said on Monday it has added Chinese tech giants including gaming and social media leader Tencent Holdings and battery maker CATL to a list of firms it says work with China’s military. The list also included chip maker Changxin Memory Technologies, Quectel W … ⌘ Read more

Toyota’s Futuristic Woven City In Japan Is Ready For Its First Residents
Toyota’s Woven City, a $10 billion “living laboratory” on the site of a former car factory, is set to welcome its first 100 residents in fall 2025. The first residents will be Toyota employees and affiliates, but the city aims to expand to include “external inventors and their families.” The Verge reports: Toyota said it completed “phase … ⌘ Read more

Ahead of SCOTUS Hearing, Study Finds TikTok Is Likely Vehicle For Chinese Propaganda
A forthcoming peer-reviewed study (PDF) from Rutgers University’s Network Contagion Research Institute argues that TikTok surfaces fewer anti-CCP posts compared to Instagram and YouTube, despite higher user engagement with such content. It also found that heavy TikTok usage correlates with more favorable vie … ⌘ Read more

Dell Will No Longer Make XPS Computers
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: After ditching the traditional Dell XPS laptop look in favor of the polarizing design of the XPS 13 Plus released in 2022, Dell is killing the XPS branding that has become a mainstay for people seeking a sleek, respectable, well-priced PC. This means that there won’t be any more Dell XPS clamshell ultralight laptops, 2-in-1 laptops, or des … ⌘ Read more

Why Computer Scientists Consult Oracles
Computer scientists are using hypothetical devices called “oracles” to advance the field of computational complexity theory, exploring fundamental questions about problem-solving difficulty. These theoretical tools, which instantly provide correct yes-or-no answers to specific questions, help researchers understand relationships between different classes of computational problems.

Oracles ha … ⌘ Read more

Hundreds of US Locations Had Their Hottest Year On Record
Communities across the U.S. experienced unprecedented warmth in 2024, with numerous cities breaking temperature records set just a year earlier. Phoenix recorded an average temperature of 90.5F and endured 70 days with highs at or above 110F, surpassing its previous record of 55 days.

Major metropolitan areas including Chicago, Nashville, Washington, Pittsbur … ⌘ Read more

Intel Says New Laptop Chips Will Extend Computer Battery Life
Intel, which has been fending off mounting competition in notebook processors, says a new range of chips will help enable the longest battery life available in laptops. From a report: New computers based on the latest version of its Core Ultra processors will go on sale starting this month, the company said Monday at CES, an annual consumer electro … ⌘ Read more

Microsoft’s Bing Deploys Google-Mimicking Interface To Retain Search Users
Microsoft’s Bing search engine has deployed a controversial interface change that mimics Google’s appearance when users search for “Google” or “Google.com” while logged out, blog WindowsLatest reports.

The new design adjusts the page layout to conceal Bing’s search bar and navigation, displaying instead a Google-like interface w … ⌘ Read more

A New Electricity Supercycle is Under Way
Global investment in electrical grid infrastructure is surging amid rising demand for power and the shift to renewable energy, reaching nearly $400 billion in 2024 from just over $300 billion in 2020. The International Energy Agency forecasts spending will hit $600 billion annually by 2030, driven by decarbonization efforts, electrification of transport and heating, and growing power nee … ⌘ Read more

Microsoft Would Really Like You To Stop Using Windows 10 This Year
Microsoft is pushing users to upgrade from Windows 10 to Windows 11 ahead of the operating system’s end of support in October 2025. The company’s consumer chief marketing officer Yusuf Mehdi declared 2025 “the year of the Windows 11 PC refresh,” positioning PC upgrades as more crucial than TV or phone purchases. The Verge adds: Mehdi believes … ⌘ Read more

HDMI 2.2 Debuts, With an ‘Ultra96’ Cable For Tomorrow’s Displays
The HDMI Forum has announced HDMI 2.2, doubling data bandwidth to 96Gbps through new “Ultra96” cables while maintaining compatibility with existing connectors. The specification, scheduled for release to industry adopters in first-half 2025, promises higher resolutions and refresh rates, including 4K at 480Hz and 8K at 240Hz.

A new Latency Indication P … ⌘ Read more

Unemployed Office Workers Are Having a Harder Time Finding New Jobs
More than 1.6 million Americans have been jobless for at least six months, up 50% since late 2022, despite the economy adding over two million jobs last year, Labor Department data shows.

The average job search now takes six months, primarily affecting high-paying sectors like tech, law, and media. While the 4.2% unemployment rate remains … ⌘ Read more

Climate Crisis ‘Wreaking Havoc’ on Earth’s Water Cycle, Report Finds
The climate crisis is “wreaking havoc” on the planet’s water cycle, with ferocious floods and crippling droughts affecting billions of people, a report has found. The Guardian: Water is people’s most vital natural resource but global heating is changing the way water moves around the Earth. The analysis of water disasters in 2024, which was t … ⌘ Read more

OpenAI Now Knows How To Build AGI, Says Altman
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says the AI startup has figured out how to build artificial general intelligence (AGI) and is now targeting superintelligent systems that could transform scientific discovery.

In a blog post, Altman predicted AI agents could begin integrating into workplaces by 2025. He outlined plans to develop AI systems surpassing human-level intelligence across all domains. “We … ⌘ Read more

Disney To Merge Hulu + Live TV With Fubo
The Walt Disney Co. will merge its streaming multichannel video service Hulu with Live TV with its competitor Fubo in a surprise deal that will shake up the streaming TV business, the companies said Monday. From a report: The new company will continue to be traded publicly under the Fubo name, however Disney will control 70% and appoint a majority of the board. Fubo management, includin … ⌘ Read more

Millions of Windows 10 PCs Face Security Disaster in 2025 When Microsoft Ends Support
“Millions of computers are heading towards a security crisis as Microsoft plans to end support for Windows 10 on October 14, 2025,” writes BetaNews:

32 million devices — roughly 65 percent of household computers in Germany — are still running the aging operating system. In the DACH region, including Aust … ⌘ Read more

Jimmy Carter Remembered Fondly by Bill Gates, Environmentalists
As America begins a six-day state funeral for former president Jimmy Carter, Microsoft co-founder/philanthropist Bill Gates shared “my fondest memory” this week. “He and Rosalynn were among my first and most inspiring role models in global health.”

They played a pretty profound role in the early days of the Gates Foundation. I’m especially grateful … ⌘ Read more

New York Times Recognizes Open-Source Maintainers With 2024 ‘Good Tech’ Award
This week New York Times technology columnist Kevin Roose published his annual “Good Tech” awards to “shine the spotlight on a few tech projects that I think contributed positively to humanity.”

And high on the list is “Andres Freund, and every open-source software maintainer saving us from doom.”

The most fun column I w … ⌘ Read more

America Still Has Net Neutrality Laws - In States Like California and New York
A U.S. Appeals Court ruled this week that net neutrality couldn’t be reinstated by America’s Federal Communications Commission. But “Despite the dismantling of the FCC’s efforts to regulate broadband internet service, state laws in California, New York and elsewhere remain intact,” notes the Los Angeles Times:

This we … ⌘ Read more

Man Trapped in Circling Waymo on Way to Airport
It “felt like a Disneyland ride,” reports CBS News. A man took a Waymo takes to the airport — only to discover the car “wouldn’t stop driving around a parking lot in circles.” And because the car was in motion, he also couldn’t get out.

Still stuck in the car, Michael Johns — a tech-industry worker — then phoned Waymo for help. (“Has this been hacked? What’s going on? I feel lik … ⌘ Read more

How the OS/2 Flop Went On To Shape Modern Software
“It’s fair to say that by 1995, OS/2 was dead software walking,” remembers a new article from the Register (which begins with a 1995 Usenet post from Gordon Letwin, Microsoft’s lead architect on the OS/2 project).
But the real question is why this Microsoft-IBM collaboration on a DOS-replacing operating system ultimately lost out to Windows…?

If OS/2 1.0 had been an 80386 … ⌘ Read more

Employers are Offering Remote Work with Lower Salaries
“In many instances, there’s a catch: flexible work but at lower pay…” writes Fortune.

“Remote workers are accepting lower salaries in order to achieve remote status. Some are taking as much as 5% to 15% less pay to do so, while other employers are reversing the strategy to entice workers to come to the office at higher salaries…”

Today, nearly half of managers a … ⌘ Read more