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According to Convergence Research, an estimated 46% of Canadian households didn't have a TV subscription with a cable, satellite, or telecom-based provider in 2024. MobileSyrup reports: In its latest annual "Couch Potato" report (PDF) on the streaming market, the firm notes that this was a four per cent increase from 2023 and that the number is expected to continue to rise to 54 per cent by 2027. Convergence notes that this marks a greater shift towards subscription video on demand services (SVOD) like Netflix and Disney+. To that point, the firm found that Canadian streaming subscription revenue grew 15 per cent year-over-year to $4.2 billion in 2024. At the same time, linear TV subscription revenue dropped five per cent to around $6.5 billion. Some other interesting findings from the report: - The 10 leading streaming providers raised prices in Canada by an average of six percent last year - Ad-enabled memberships are cost 39 percent less on average compared to ad-free options - Canadians subscribe to an average of 2.6 streaming platforms per household

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An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: World of Warcraft Classic's Hardcore mode has set itself apart from the average MMO experience simply by making character death permanent across the entire in-game realm. For years, Blizzard has not allowed any appeals or rollbacks for these Hardcore mode character deaths, even when such deaths came as the direct result of a server disconnection or gameplay bug. Now, Blizzard says it's modifying that policy somewhat in response to a series of "unprecedented distributed-denial-of-service (DDOS) attacks" undertaken "with the singular goal of disrupting players' experiences." The World of Warcraft developer says it may now resurrect Classic Hardcore characters "at our sole discretion" when those deaths come "in a mass event which we deem inconsistent with the integrity of the game." WoW's Classic Hardcore made it a hotspot for streamers, especially members of the OnlyFangs Guild, who embraced the challenge that one mistake could end a character's run. However, as Ars Technica reports, a series of DDOS attacks timed with their major livestreamed raids led to character deaths and widespread frustration, prompting streamer sodapoppin to declare the guild's end. Blizzard responded by updating its Hardcore policy to resurrect characters lost specifically to DDOS attacks. "Recently, we have experienced unprecedented distributed-denial-of-service (DDOS) attacks that impacted many Blizzard game services, including Hardcore realms, with the singular goal of disrupting players' experiences," WoW Classic Associate Production Director Clay Stone wrote in a public message. "As we continue our work to further strengthen the resilience of WoW realms and our rapid response time, we're taking steps to resurrect player-characters that were lost as a result of these attacks."

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Officials likely broke Privacy Act by dishing out info without consent

A Maryland judge has dealt another blow to Elon Musk's cost-trimming DOGE unit, temporarily blocking the US Treasury, Dept of Education, and Office of Personnel Management from sharing union members' personal data with the billionaire's minions.…

The man who helped make Sammy the biggest name in modern tellies

Samsung co-CEO Han Jong-hee died this week in the Samsung Medical Center in southern Seoul after a cardiac arrest. He was 63.…

Google DeepMind has launched Gemini 2.5, a new family of AI models designed to "think" before responding to queries. The initial release, Gemini 2.5 Pro Experimental, tops the LMArena leaderboard by what Google claims is a "significant margin" and demonstrates enhanced reasoning capabilities across technical tasks. The model achieved 18.8% on Humanity's Last Exam without tools, outperforming most competing flagship models. In mathematics, it scored 86.7% on AIME 2025 and 92.0% on AIME 2024 in single attempts, while reaching 84.0% on GPQA's diamond benchmark for scientific reasoning. For developers, Gemini 2.5 Pro demonstrates improved coding abilities with 63.8% on SWE-Bench Verified using a custom agent setup, though this falls short of Anthropic's Claude 3.7 Sonnet score of 70.3%. On Aider Polyglot for code editing, it scores 68.6%, which Google claims surpasses competing models. The reasoning approach builds on Google's previous experiments with reinforcement learning and chain-of-thought prompting. These techniques allow the model to analyze information, incorporate context, and draw conclusions before delivering responses. Gemini 2.5 Pro ships with a 1 million token context window (approximately 750,000 words). The model is available immediately in Google AI Studio and for Gemini Advanced subscribers, with Vertex AI integration planned in the coming weeks.

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A software engineer discovered that his newly purchased Bosch 500 series dishwasher locks basic functionality behind cloud connectivity, reigniting concerns about internet-dependent home appliances. Jeff Geerling found that features like rinse cycle, delayed start and eco mode on his $1,000 dishwasher require connecting to WiFi and creating an account with "Home Connect," Bosch's cloud service. Geerling criticized the approach as potentially part of planned obsolescence, noting that without a current subscription fee, the company will likely either shutter the service or introduce payments for previously standard features.

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Boeing is seeking to withdraw an earlier agreement to plead guilty in a long-running criminal case that blamed the company for deceiving regulators before two deadly crashes of 737 MAX jets, WSJ is reporting, citing people familiar with the matter. From the report: The aerospace giant is seeking more lenient treatment from the Justice Department, which under the Trump administration is reviewing numerous pending criminal cases that haven't yet gone to trial or been approved by courts. Boeing nearly sealed its fate last year, agreeing in July to plead guilty to defrauding the Federal Aviation Administration. But a federal judge in Texas rejected the proposed deal in December, pushing the resolution beyond the Biden administration. Now Boeing stands to benefit from fresh eyes at Trump's Justice Department, which is inclined to at least modify parts of the agreement, some of the people said. Allowing Boeing to rescind its plea agreement, or lightening the company's punishment, would mark one of the most prominent examples of the Trump administration's lighter-touch approach to some white-collar enforcement. There were 346 people killed in the two 737 MAX crashes, in 2018 and 2019. The two sides are still negotiating how to propose changes to the deal, expected by April 11, to U.S. District Judge Reed O'Connor, who oversees the case. One possible change under discussion: whether Boeing can forgo hiring an outside monitor to ensure its compliance with the law, the people said.

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An impressive recreation of the Windows golden age

The ReactOS project is putting out a point-release for the first time in a few years, and this insanely optimistic effort is making progress.…

Customers come forward claiming info was swiped from prod

Oracle Cloud's denial of a digital break-in is now in clear dispute. A infosec researcher working on validating claims that the cloud provider's login servers were compromised earlier this year says some customers have confirmed data allegedly stolen and leaked from the database giant is genuine.…

The president of Signal defended the messaging app's security on Wednesday after top Trump administration officials mistakenly included a journalist in an encrypted chatroom they used to discuss looming U.S. military action against Yemen's Houthis. For a report: Signal's Meredith Whittaker did not directly address the blunder, which Democratic lawmakers have said was a breach of U.S. national security. But she described the app as the "gold standard in private comms" in a post on X, which outlined Signal's security advantages over Meta's WhatsApp messaging app. "We're open source, nonprofit, and we develop and apply (end-to-end encryption) and privacy-preserving tech across our system to protect metadata and message contents," she said.

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An anonymous reader shares a report: Sometime earlier this month, Apple updated a section of its website that discloses how it collects and uses imagery for Apple Maps' Look Around feature, which is similar to Google Maps' Street View, as spotted by 9to5Mac. A newly added paragraph reveals that, beginning in March 2025, Apple will be using imagery and data collected during Look Around surveys to "train models powering Apple products and services, including models related to image recognition, creation, and enhancement." Apple collects images and 3D data to enhance and improve Apple Maps using vehicles and backpacks (for pedestrian-only areas) equipped with cameras, sensors, and other equipment including iPhones and iPads. The company says that as part of its commitment to privacy, any images it captures that are published in the Look Around feature have faces and license plates blurred. Apple also says it will only use imagery with those details blurred out for training models. It does accept requests for those wanting their houses to also be blurred, but by default they are not.

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An anonymous reader shares a report: The UK's Consumer Markets Authority (CMA) has provided an update into its investigation of Ticketmaster after the sale of Oasis reunion tour tickets resulted in grossly inflated ticket prices and numerous consumer complaints. The CMA said that the results of the investigation warranted, "consulting with the ticketing platform on changes to ensure fans receive the right information, at the right time." Of concern to the CMA was Ticketmaster's labeling and information practices. In its update, the CMA stated that Ticketmaster designated certain tickets as "platinum," selling them at more than twice the standard price without adequately informing consumers that the increased price did not correspond to better seats or other perks. The CMA also took issue with Ticketmaster's handling of standing room tickets. It explained that the company sold off a cheaper category of standing ticket first then surprised buyers waiting in extensive online queues with a more expensive ticket.

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We have one, yes – but what about a second death ray?

Still shopping for the perfect death ray, the US Army has tapped Huntington Ingalls to build and test a prototype laser weapon designed to fry drones in flight.…

Alibaba Chairman Joe Tsai has warned of a potential bubble forming in data center construction, arguing that the pace of that buildout may outstrip initial demand for AI services. From a report: A rush by big tech firms, investment funds and other entities to erect server bases from the US to Asia is starting to look indiscriminate, the billionaire executive and financier said. Many of those projects are built without clear customers in mind, Tsai told the HSBC Global Investment Summit in Hong Kong Tuesday. "I start to see the beginning of some kind of bubble," Tsai told delegates. Some of the envisioned projects commenced raising funds without having secured "uptake" agreements, he added. "I start to get worried when people are building data centers on spec. There are a number of people coming up, funds coming out, to raise billions or millions of capital." [...] At the same time, Tsai had choice words for his US rivals, particularly with their spending. "I'm still astounded by the type of numbers that's being thrown around in the United States about investing into AI," Tsai told the audience. "People are talking, literally talking about $500 billion, several 100 billion dollars. I don't think that's entirely necessary. I think in a way, people are investing ahead of the demand that they're seeing today, but they are projecting much bigger demand."

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User group chairman warns, however, that ERP giant's pace is not feasible for every org

Europe's German-speaking SAP user group is reporting a sharp uptick in organizations signing up or planning to sign up for the application vendor's preferred cloud migration route.…

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman believes companies will eventually need fewer software engineers as AI continues to transform programming. "Each software engineer will just do much, much more for a while. And then at some point, yeah, maybe we do need less software engineers," Altman told Stratechery. AI now handles over 50% of code authorship in many companies, Altman estimated, a significant shift that's happened rapidly as large language models have improved. The real paradigm shift is still coming, he said. "The big thing I think will come with agentic coding, which no one's doing for real yet," Altman said, suggesting that the next breakthrough will be AI systems that can independently tackle larger programming tasks with minimal human guidance. While OpenAI continues hiring engineers for now, Altman recommended that high school graduates entering the workforce "get really good at using AI tools," calling it the modern equivalent of learning to code. "When I was graduating as a senior from high school, the obvious tactical thing was get really good at coding. And this is the new version of that," he said.

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Joe Tsai says speculative datacenter builds could exceed actual demand

Alibaba is warning of a datacenter spending "bubble" amid the rush to build infrastructure in anticipation of an AI feeding frenzy.…

Infinite Reality, a 3D technology company, has acquired Napster for $207 million, the companies announced Tuesday. The deal aims to transform the once-notorious music sharing service into a metaverse platform. Napster, launched in 1999 by Shawn Fanning and Sean Parker, was the first major peer-to-peer file-sharing application before legal battles forced its closure in 2001. Since 2016, it has operated as a subscription streaming service. Infinite Reality plans to create virtual 3D spaces where music fans can experience concerts together and artists can sell merchandise.

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Redmond veteran proposes Zero Sugar and Caffeine Free variants

Baffled by the plethora of Outlook options out there? You aren't alone. Microsoft veteran Scott Hanselman posted a list of some more variants that could be used to do the same thing.…

An anonymous reader quotes a report from ZDNet: There are many stories of how artificial intelligence came to take over the world, but one of the most important developments is the emergence in 2012 of AlexNet, a neural network that, for the first time, demonstrated a huge jump in a computer's ability to recognize images. Thursday, the Computer History Museum (CHM), in collaboration with Google, released for the first time the AlexNet source code written by University of Toronto graduate student Alex Krizhevsky, placing it on GitHub for all to peruse and download. "CHM is proud to present the source code to the 2012 version of Alex Krizhevsky, Ilya Sutskever, and Geoffery Hinton's AlexNet, which transformed the field of artificial intelligence," write the Museum organizers in the readme file on GitHub. Krizhevsky's creation would lead to a flood of innovation in the ensuing years, and tons of capital, based on proof that with sufficient data and computing, neural networks could achieve breakthroughs previously viewed as mainly theoretical. The Computer History Museum's software historian, Hansen Hsu, published an essay describing how he spent five years negotiating with Google to release the code.

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