TheRegister
Recline of the machines: Terminator felled by dodgy battery
Bork!Bork!Bork! The baddest of AI bad guys, the Terminator, has confirmed what the vast majority of IT professionals already know. The machines are not about to rise, not until they can deal with that pesky battery voltage.…
HSBC app takes a dim view of sideloaded Bitwarden installations
Some HSBC mobile banking customers in the UK report being locked out of the bank's app after installing the Bitwarden password manager via an open source app catalog.…
UK to spend £23M on AI to tell benefit claimants where to go
The UK's Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is set to introduce a conversational AI platform it hopes will steer calls from citizens with queries about their benefits. The contract is worth up to £23 million.…
Lenovo shows off new laptops that twist and roll
If there was a kingdom of laptop screen flexibility, Lenovo would take the crown. Last year, the company released the ThinkBook Plus Gen 6, with a mechanical screen that could roll out to increase its size from 14 to 16.7 inches. Now, it’s back with the ThinkPad Rollable XD concept laptop that expands from 13.3 to 16 inches at the touch of a button or a swipe, along with the ThinkBook Plus Gen 7 Auto Twist, which uses a motor to rotate its screen and follow you around the room.…
Ring embraces the end of the world, starts using home cameras to track wildfires
A year after a series of fires obliterated communities in Los Angeles, Amazon's Ring security service has announced a feature called Fire Watch intended to mitigate future wildfire risk.…
HackerOne 'ghosted' me for months over $8,500 bug bounty, says researcher
Last fall, Jakub Ciolek reported two denial-of-service bugs in Argo CD, a popular Kubernetes controller, via HackerOne's Internet Bug Bounty (IBB) program. Both were assigned CVEs and have since been fixed. But instead of receiving an $8,500 reward for the two flaws, Ciolek says, HackerOne ghosted him for months.…
Snowflake gets frosty with Google Gemini
The data platform Snowflake is putting Google's Gemini to work inside its Cortex AI, aiming to give customers access to a foundational model within the boundaries of their data environment across supported clouds, the company told The Register.…
Brave refurbishes Rust adblocking engine for reduced memory footprint
Brave Software has reworked its browser's Rust-based adblock engine to make it significantly more memory efficient and perhaps more secure. So you get fewer ads now with fewer MB of RAM.…
Optimus Schmoptimus - Boston Dynamics' humanoid robot is already in mass production
CES 2026 Remember when Elon Musk predicted that there would be thousands of Optimus robots at Tesla factories by the end of 2025? Well, that didn't happen, but competitor Boston Dynamics has just announced that its humanoid robot, Atlas, is going to the big time.…
Brightspeed investigates breach as crims post stolen data for sale
Internet service provider Brightspeed confirmed that it's investigating criminals' claims that they stole more than a million customers' records and have listed them for sale for three bitcoin, or about $276,370. …
Lego crams an ASIC in a brick to keep kids interested
Not even Legos are safe from the inexorable march of smart technology, as the Danish construction toy stalwart introduced a new tech-in-a-brick Smart Play system at CES this week. …
What if Linux ran Windows… and meant it? Meet Loss32
What if, rather than make a Linux distro that can run Windows apps, you built the whole distro around Windows binaries instead?…
StockHistory function becomes StockMystery as Microsoft Excel bugs out
For many, the start of a new year is a time to take stock. For Microsoft, it was a time to stop giving it as the company kicked off 2026 with a bug that broke Excel's StockHistory function.…
No membrane in sight as Osmos diffuses into Microsoft Fabric
Microsoft has bought Osmos, an AI-assisted data engineering platform, in a bid to enrich its Fabric data platform, encroaching on so-called partners' markets.…
Mem-ageddon: AI chip frenzy to wallop DRAM prices with 70% hike
Memory prices are set to spike again as chipmakers prioritize AI server production over consumer devices, with analysts warning of a high double-digit jump in Q1 2026 alone as demand outpaces supply.…
Fake Windows BSODs check in at Europe's hotels to con staff into running malware
Russia-linked hackers are sneaking malware into European hotels and other hospitality outfits by tricking staff into installing it themselves through fake Windows Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) crashes.…
Humongous 52-inch Dell monitor will make you feel like king of the internet with four screens in one
If you like to separate your workflow onto multiple monitors but hate the gap and bezel between screens, Dell’s new display was made for you. Announced on Tuesday at CES, the Dell UltraSharp 52 (U5226KW) offers 52 inches of 6K resolution screen real estate that you can divide into up to four virtual monitors, supporting input either from up to four different devices, or one computer that creates that many desktops.…
Congress ctrl-Zs bulk of proposed cuts to NASA science
NASA's budget battle took another turn this week as the US House and Senate Appropriations Committees released text rejecting proposed cuts to the space agency.…
Crypto wallet shop Ledger confirms customer data lifted in Global-e snafu
Blockchain security biz Ledger says customer information was accessed in a breach at its ecommerce payment partner Global-e, and is warning that other brands using the platform may also be affected.…
UK urged to unplug from US tech giants as digital sovereignty fears grow
The Open Rights Group is warning politicians that the UK is leaning far too heavily on US tech companies to run critical systems, and wants the Cybersecurity and Resilience Bill to force a rethink.…