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An anonymous reader quotes a report from DroidLife: When the FCC cleared Verizon of its 60-day device unlock policy a week ago, we talked about how the government agency, which is as anti-consumer as it has ever been at the moment, was giving Verizon the power to basically create whatever unlock policy it wanted. We also expected Verizon to make a change to its policies in a hurry and they did not disappoint. Again, the FCC provided them a waiver 7 days ago and they are already starting to update policies. As of this morning, Verizon has implemented a new device unlock policy across its various prepaid brands and I'd imagine their postpaid policy change is right around the corner. Brands like Visible, Total Wireless, Tracfone, and StraightTalk, all have an updated device unlock policy today that extends to 365 days of paid and active service before they'll free your phone from the Verizon network. Starting January 20, Verizon says that devices purchased from their prepaid brands will only be unlocked upon request after 365 days and if you meet several requirements [...]. What exactly is changing here? Well, if you purchased a device from Verizon's value brands previously, they would automatically unlock them after 60 days. Now, you have to wait 365 days, request the unlock because it doesn't happen automatically, and also have active service. [...] The FCC mentioned in their waiver that by allowing Verizon to create whatever unlock policy they wanted that this would "benefit consumers." How does any of this benefit consumers?

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January update is the gift that keeps on giving

Microsoft's January Windows update has delivered another blow for unsuspecting users – apps including Outlook might freeze when saving files to cloud storage services such as OneDrive or Dropbox.…

Minister unwraps ambassadors of the Software Security Code of Practice

Britain's digital economy minister has sent forth a raft of companies as "ambassadors" to help organizations across the land embrace the UK's Software Security Code of Practice.…

Ownership of models, embedded corporate knowledge matters more than server location, Nadella says

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella says datacenter location is "the least important thing" for AI sovereignty.…

Dislike systemd but occasionally need it for something? MX can help

MX Linux 25.1 restores the ability to switch init systems – the killer feature of MX Linux of old.…

Open Rights Group says plans would create serious privacy risks

The UK government's proposed ban on under-16s using social media would amount to building a mass age-verification system for the entire internet, creating "serious risks to privacy, data protection, and freedom of expression," digital rights advocates have warned.…

Snap has settled a social media addiction lawsuit just days before trial, while Meta, TikTok, and Alphabet remain defendants and are headed to court. "Terms of the deal were not announced as it was revealed by lawyers at a California Superior Court hearing, after which Snap told the BBC the parties were 'pleased to have been able to resolve this matter in an amicable manner.'" From the report: The plaintiff, a 19-year old woman identified by the initials K.G.M., alleged that the algorithmic design of the platforms left her addicted and affected her mental health. In the absence of a settlement with the other parties, the trial is scheduled to go forward against the remaining three defendants, with jury selection due to begin on January 27. Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg is expected to testify, and until Tuesday's settlement, Snap CEO Evan Spiegel was also set to take the stand. Snap is still a defendant in other social media addiction cases that have been consolidated in the court. The closely watched cases could challenge a legal theory that social media companies have used to shield themselves. They have long argued that Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 protects them from liability for what third parties post on their platforms. But plaintiffs argue that the platforms are designed in a way that leaves users addicted through choices that affect their algorithms and notifications. The social media companies have said the plaintiffs' evidence falls short of proving that they are responsible for alleged harms such as depression and eating disorders.

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Behold the cardboard ENIAC

Students at an Arizona school have built a full-scale replica of ENIAC, marking 80 years since the dedication of the computer at the University of Pennsylvania.…

But who is paying to keep the lights on?

Bork!Bork!Bork! Sometimes technology is made of sterner stuff than we give credit for, such as this ATM, which has clung on to life – and power – despite the indignities heaped upon it.…

alternative_right shares a report from ScienceAlert: Thanks to a giant eruption on the Sun and a large opening in its atmosphere, we're currently experiencing G4 conditions -- a severe geomagnetic storm strong enough to disrupt power grids as energy from space weather disturbances drives electric currents through Earth's magnetic field and the ground. Experts say the storm could even reach G5 levels, the extreme category responsible for the spectacular auroral activity seen in May 2024. In fact, space weather bureaus around the world are forecasting powerful aurora conditions, with some suggesting aurora could be visible at unusually low latitudes, potentially rivaling the reach of 2024's historic superstorm. A livestream of the Northern Lights is available on YouTube. The Aurora forecast is available here.

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Maintainer hopes hackers send bug reports anyway, will keep shaming ‘silly' ones

The maintainer of popular open-source data transfer tool cURL has ended the project’s bug bounty program after maintainers struggled to assess a flood of AI-generated contributions.…

Hasn't said why, but low share in a slow-growing market suggests it can't be bothered

Sony wants to stop making televisions.…

An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Guardian: The world has entered an era of "global water bankruptcy" that is harming billions of people, a UN report has declared. The overuse and pollution of water must be tackled urgently, the report's lead author said, because no one knew when the whole system could collapse, with implications for peace and social cohesion. All life depends on water but the report found many societies had long been using water faster than it could be replenished annually in rivers and soils, as well as over-exploiting or destroying long-term stores of water in aquifers and wetlands. This had led to water bankruptcy, the report said, with many human water systems past the point at which they could be restored to former levels. The climate crisis was exacerbating the problem by melting glaciers, which store water, and causing whiplashes between extremely dry and wet weather. Prof Kaveh Madani, who led the report, said while not every basin and country was water bankrupt, the world was interconnected by trade and migration, and enough critical systems had crossed this threshold to fundamentally alter global water risk. The result was a world in which 75% of people lived in countries classified as water-insecure or critically water-insecure and 2 billion people lived on ground that is sinking as groundwater aquifers collapse. Conflicts over water had risen sharply since 2010, the report said, while major rivers, such as the Colorado, in the US, and the Murray-Darling system, in Australia, were failing to reach the sea, and "day zero" emergencies -- when cities run out of water, such as in Chennai, India -- were escalating. Half of the world's large lakes had shrunk since the early 1990s, the report noted. Even damp nations, such as the UK, were at risk because of reliance on imports of water-dependent food and other products. "This report tells an uncomfortable truth: many critical water systems are already bankrupt," said Madani, of the UN University's Institute for Water, Environment and Health. "It's extremely urgent [because] no one knows exactly when the whole system would collapse." About 70% of fresh water taken by human withdrawals was used for agriculture, but Madani said: "Millions of farmers are trying to grow more food from shrinking, polluted or disappearing water sources. Water bankruptcy in India or Pakistan, for example, also means an impact on rice exports to a lot of places around the world." More than half of global food was grown in areas where water storage was declining or unstable, the report said. Madani said action to deal with water bankruptcy offered a chance to bring countries together in an increasingly fragmented world. "Water is a strategic, untapped opportunity to the world to create unity within and between nations. It is one of the very rare topics that left and right and north and south all agree on its importance." The UN report, which is based on a forthcoming paper in the peer-reviewed journal Water Resources Management, sets out how population growth, urbanization and economic growth have increased water demand for agriculture, industry, energy and cities. "These pressures have produced a global pattern that is now unmistakable," it said.

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Ancient Slashdot reader jantangring shares a report from Swedish electronics industry news site Elektroniktidningen (translated to English), writing: "Open source code library cURL is removing the possibility to earn money by reporting bugs, hoping that this will reduce the volume of AI slop reports," reports etn.se. "Joshua Rogers -- AI wielding bug hunter of fame -- thinks it's a great idea." cURL maintainer Daniel Stenberg famously reported on the flood AI-generated bad bug reports last year -- "Death by a thousand slops." Now, cURL is removing the bounty payouts as of the end of January. "We have to try to brake the flood in order not to drown," says cURL maintainer Daniel Stenberg [...]. "Despite being an AI wielding bug hunter himself, Joshua Rogers -- slasher of a hundred bugs -- thinks removing the bounty money is an excellent idea. [...] I think it's a good move and worth a bigger consideration by others. It's ridiculous that it went on for so long to be honest, and I personally would have pulled the plug long ago," he says to etn.se.

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Think of the children...and the monetization options available where they're not allowed

OpenAI says it has begun deploying an age prediction model to determine whether ChatGPT users are old enough to view "sensitive or potentially harmful content."…

According to the Wall Street Journal, OpenAI and ServiceNow signed a three-year deal to embed AI agents directly into ServiceNow's enterprise workflows. CNBC reports: As part of the deal, ServiceNow will integrate GPT-5.2 into its enterprise workflow platform and create AI voice technology harnessing these models. "Bringing together our engineering teams and our respective technologies will drive faster value for customers and more intuitive ways of working with AI," said Amit Zavery, president, chief operating officer, and chief product officer at ServiceNow.

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This week, Google finally shut down the official Stadia Bluetooth conversion tool... but there's no need to panic! Developer Christopher Klay preserved a copy on his personal GitHub and is hosting a fully working version of the tool on a dedicated website to make it even easier to find. The Verge's Sean Hollister reports: I haven't tried Klay's mirror, as both of my gamepads are already converted, but here's my video on how easy the process is. It's worth doing now that the pads work relatively well with Steam! I maintain that while Google made a lot of mistakes, it's an amazing example of shutting down a service the right way.

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An anonymous reader quotes a report from U.S. News & World Report: U.S. health officials plan a new study investigating whether radiation from cellphones may affect human health. A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said the research will examine electromagnetic radiation and possible gaps in current science. The initiative stems from numerous concerns raised by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has linked cellphone use to neurological damage and cancer. "The [U.S. Food and Drug Administration] removed webpages with old conclusions about cell phone radiation while HHS undertakes a study on electromagnetic radiation and health research to identify gaps in knowledge, including on new technologies, to ensure safety and efficacy," HHS spokesman Andrew Nixon said. He added that the study was directed in a strategy report from the president's Make America Healthy Again Commission. Some webpages from the FDA and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say current research does not show clear harm from cellphone radiation. The National Cancer Institute, which is part of the National Institutes of Health, says that "evidence to date suggests that cellphone use does not cause brain or other kinds of cancer in humans.".

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The UK government has launched a public consultation on whether to ban social media use for children under 16, drawing inspiration from Australia's recently enacted age-based restrictions. "It would also explore how to enforce that limit, how to limit tech companies from being able to access children's data and how to limit 'infinite scrolling,' as well as access to addictive online tools," reports Engadget. "In addition to seeking feedback from parents and young people themselves, the country's ministers are going to visit Australia to see the effects of the country's social media ban for kids, according to Financial Times."

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ACME validation had a challenge-request hole

Cloudflare has fixed a flaw in its web application firewall (WAF) that allowed attackers to bypass security rules and directly access origin servers, which could lead to data theft or full server takeover.…