Apple has implemented conspicuous warning labels featuring red exclamation marks on EU App Store listings that use external payment systems. The company's new tactic targets apps like Instacar, a popular Hungarian vehicle valuation tool with thousands of positive reviews, displaying ominous warnings that the app "does not support the App Store's private and secure payment system." The associated support page cautions users that external payments require providing personal information directly to developers and third parties "based on their privacy and security controls." The move also follows the Epic vs Apple ruling that prohibits Apple from interfering with developers linking to alternative payment systems.

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Google has overtaken IBM to become the leader in generative AI-related patents and also leads in the emerging area of agentic AI, according to data from IFI Claims. Axios: In the patents-for-agents U.S. rankings, Google and Nvidia top the list, followed by IBM, Intel and Microsoft, according to an analysis released Thursday. Globally, Google and Nvidia also led the agentic patents list, but three Chinese universities also make the top 10, highlighting China's place as the chief U.S. rival in the field. In global rankings for generative AI, Google was also the leader -- but six of the top 10 global spots were held by Chinese companies or universities. Microsoft was No. 3, with Nvidia and IBM also in the top 10.

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The Federal Trade Commission has postponed enforcement of its consumer-friendly "click to cancel" rule from May 14 to July 14, giving businesses two additional months to comply. The regulation requires companies to make subscription cancellations as straightforward as the sign-up process, prohibiting practices like forcing customers who subscribed online to navigate through chatbots or call centers to cancel. The rule, established under former Democratic Chair Lina Khan, unsurprisingly has garnered support from consumer advocates while facing legal opposition from industry groups. A coalition including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and organizations representing major telecom and media companies -- Charter Communications, Comcast, Disney Entertainment, and Warner Bros. Discovery -- has sued to block implementation, claiming the agency exceeded its authority.

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Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase said Thursday it is offering a $20 million reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of criminals who attempted to extort the company for the same amount after stealing customer data. The criminals bribed customer support agents in overseas markets to access records containing addresses, phone numbers, government IDs, and partial bank and Social Security details of more than 80,000 customers. "It sucks but when we see a problem like this we want to own it and make it right," Coinbase Chief Security Officer Philip Martin told Fortune. The company will reimburse customers who fell victim to subsequent social engineering scams. No login credentials or wallet access were compromised in the breach. The extortionists had threatened to publish the stolen information unless paid $20 million in Bitcoin.

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A new study published in Nature Human Behaviour reveals that ChatGPT diminishes the diversity of ideas generated during brainstorming sessions. Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School found [PDF] that while generative AI tools may enhance individual creativity, they simultaneously reduce the collective diversity of novel content. The investigation responds to previous research that examined ChatGPT's impact on creativity. Their findings align with separate research published in Science Advances suggesting AI-generated content tends toward homogeneity. This phenomenon mirrors what researchers call the "fourth grade slump in creativity," referencing earlier studies on how structured approaches can limit innovative thinking.

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An anonymous reader shares a report: Microsoft's recently announced job cuts fell hardest on the people who build the company's products, showing that even software developers are at risk in the age of artificial intelligence. In Microsoft's home state of Washington, software engineering was by far the largest single job category to receive layoff notices, making up more than 40% of the roughly 2,000 positions cut, according to state documents reviewed by Bloomberg. Microsoft on Tuesday said it would cut about 6,000 workers across the company. The Washington state data represents about a third of the total.

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Nvidia-backed CoreWeave plans to spend up to $23 billion this year on AI infrastructure and data center capacity, as it aims to meet the booming demand from clients. Reuters reports: The heavy spending plan weighed on its shares, which fell 5% after surging as much as 11% on better-than-expected revenue in its first results as a public company after debuting on the Nasdaq in March. The company's projected capital expenditure of between $3 billion and $3.5 billion for the second quarter was way above its revenue expectation of $1.06 billion to $1.1 billion. "While the revenue from Microsoft is likely secure for the next three years, CoreWeave represents overflow capacity for Microsoft, which may not need that capacity in the future," D.A. Davidson analyst Gil Luria said. The company's revenue backlog was $25.9 billion as of March 31, with its five-year deal with OpenAI adding $11.2 billion to the pile up. As part of the deal signed in March, CoreWeave will provide AI infrastructure to OpenAI, while the ChatGPT maker will get a stake. CoreWeave expects annual revenue of $4.9 billion to $5.1 billion, above analysts' expectation of $4.61 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG. It reported revenue of $981.6 million for the first quarter, beating the estimate of $852.9 million.

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U.S. President Donald Trump said he has told Apple CEO Tim Cook to stop expanding manufacturing operations in India despite New Delhi offering a "no-tariff deal" to the United States, a move that could impede India's aspirations to become a global technology manufacturing hub. "I had a little problem with Tim Cook yesterday," Trump said during his state visit to Qatar, referring to the Apple chief executive. "He is building all over India. I don't want you building in India. India can take care of itself." Apple has significantly increased its Indian manufacturing footprint, assembling $22 billion worth of iPhones in India during the 12 months through March. Apple said earlier this month a majority of its devices shipped into the U.S. in the June quarter will originate in India and Vietnam.

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Montana has passed a bill allowing licensed clinics to offer experimental medical treatments that haven't been approved by the FDA, provided the drugs have passed phase I safety trials. MIT Technology Review reports: The bill, which was passed by the state legislature on April 29 and is expected to be signed by Governor Greg Gianforte, essentially expands on existing Right to Try legislation in the state. But while that law was originally designed to allow terminally ill people to access experimental drugs, the new bill was drafted and lobbied for by people interested in extending human lifespans -- a group of longevity enthusiasts that includes scientists, libertarians, and influencers. These longevity enthusiasts are hoping Montana will serve as a test bed for opening up access to experimental drugs. [...] Supporters of the bill say it gives individuals the freedom to make choices about their own bodies. At the same event, bioethicist Jessica Flanigan of the University of Richmond said she was "optimistic" about the measure, because "it's great any time anybody is trying to give people back their medical autonomy." Ultimately, they hope that the new law will enable people to try unproven drugs that might help them live longer, make it easier for Americans to try experimental treatments without having to travel abroad, and potentially turn Montana into a medical tourism hub. But ethicists and legal scholars aren't as optimistic. "I hate it," bioethicist Alison Bateman-House of New York University says of the bill. She and others are worried about the ethics of promoting and selling unproven treatments -- and the risks of harm should something go wrong. [...] At any rate, the clinics are coming to Montana, says [Dylan Livingston, founder and CEO of the Alliance for Longevity Initiatives]. "We have half a dozen that are interested, and maybe two or three that are definitively going to set up shop out there." He won't name names, but he says some of the interested clinicians already have clinics in the US, while others are abroad." Mac Davis -- founder and CEO of Minicircle, the company that developed the controversial "anti-aging" gene therapy -- told MIT Technology Review he was "looking into it." "I think this can be an opportunity for America and Montana to really kind of corner the market when it comes to medical tourism," says Livingston. "There is no other place in the world with this sort of regulatory environment."

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Andre has inherited a rather antique ASP .Net WebForms application. It's a large one, with many pages in it, but they all follow a certain pattern. Let's see if you can spot it.

protected void btnSearch_Click(object sender, EventArgs e) { ArrayList paramsRel = new ArrayList(); paramsRel["Name"] = txtNome.Text; paramsRel["Date"] = txtDate.Text; Session["paramsRel"] = paramsRel; List<Client> clients = Controller.FindClients(); //Some other code }

Now, at first glance, this doesn't look terrible. Using an ArrayList as a dictionary and frankly, storing a dictionary in the Session object is weird, but it's not an automatic red flag. But wait, why is it called paramsRel? They couldn't be… no, they wouldn't…

public List<Client> FindClients() { ArrayList paramsRel = (ArrayList)Session["paramsRel"]; string name = (string)paramsRel["Name"]; string dateStr = (string)paramsRel["Date"]; DateTime date = DateTime.Parse(dateStr); //More code... }

Now there's the red flag. paramsRel is how they pass parameters to functions. They stuff it into the Session, then call a function which retrieves it from that Session.

This pattern is used everywhere in the application. You can see that there's a vague gesture in the direction of trying to implement some kind of Model-View-Controller pattern (as FindClients is a member of the Controller object), but that modularization gets undercut by everything depending on Session as a pseudoglobal for passing state information around.

The only good news is that the Session object is synchronized so there's no thread safety issue here, though not for want of trying.

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Fintech startup Klarna is now recruiting humans after its AI customer service agents underperformed. The buy-now-pay-later company, which eliminated its marketing contracts in 2023 and customer service team in 2024, now plans an "Uber-type setup" with remote gig workers. This marks a stark reversal from CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski's 2024 claim that "AI can already do all of the jobs that we, as humans, do." Siemiatkowski told Bloomberg: "From a brand perspective, I just think it's so critical that you are clear to your customer that there will be always a human if you want." He added that "cost unfortunately seems to have been a too predominant evaluation factor" leading to "lower quality."

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An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Google's DeepMind research division claims its newest AI agent marks a significant step toward using the technology to tackle big problems in math and science. The system, known as AlphaEvolve, is based on the company's Gemini large language models (LLMs), with the addition of an "evolutionary" approach that evaluates and improves algorithms across a range of use cases. AlphaEvolve is essentially an AI coding agent, but it goes deeper than a standard Gemini chatbot. When you talk to Gemini, there is always a risk of hallucination, where the AI makes up details due to the non-deterministic nature of the underlying technology. AlphaEvolve uses an interesting approach to increase its accuracy when handling complex algorithmic problems. According to DeepMind, this AI uses an automatic evaluation system. When a researcher interacts with AlphaEvolve, they input a problem along with possible solutions and avenues to explore. The model generates multiple possible solutions, using the efficient Gemini Flash and the more detail-oriented Gemini Pro, and then each solution is analyzed by the evaluator. An evolutionary framework allows AlphaEvolve to focus on the best solution and improve upon it. Many of the company's past AI systems, for example, the protein-folding AlphaFold, were trained extensively on a single domain of knowledge. AlphaEvolve, however, is more dynamic. DeepMind says AlphaEvolve is a general-purpose AI that can aid research in any programming or algorithmic problem. And Google has already started to deploy it across its sprawling business with positive results. DeepMind's AlphaEvolve AI has optimized Google's Borg cluster scheduler, reducing global computing resource usage by 0.7% -- a significant cost saving at Google's scale. It also outperformed specialized AI like AlphaTensor by discovering a more efficient algorithm for multiplying complex-valued matrices. Additionally, AlphaEvolve proposed hardware-level optimizations for Google's next-gen Tensor chips. The AI remains too complex for public release but that may change in the future as it gets integrated into smaller research tools.

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Microsoft quietly announced earlier this week that it plans to shut down a long-standing tool supplying search engine startups and other software developers with a raw feed of Bing search results. From a report: The Bing Search APIs, or application programming interfaces, were once vital to many niche Google alternatives, but fell out of favor more recently as Microsoft hiked fees for the service and restricted its use. The shutoff, which is scheduled to begin on August 11, still came as a surprise to several developers who spoke with WIRED. Customers learned of it on Monday via an email from Microsoft and a post on its website. They were directed to consider using "Grounding with Bing Search as part of Azure AI Agents," a Microsoft service that allows chatbots like ChatGPT to augment AI-generated responses with "real-time public web data." Some developers view the AI-centric alternative as an insufficient replacement. Larger customers like DuckDuckGo told Wired they won't be affected.

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Google has warned that the hacker group known as "Scattered Spider," which recently disrupted UK retailer Marks & Spencer, is now targeting U.S. retailers with aggressive and sophisticated cyberattacks. "U.S. retailers should take note. These actors are aggressive, creative, and particularly effective at circumventing mature security programs," John Hultquist, an analyst at Google's cybersecurity arm, said in an email sent on Wednesday. The Guardian reports: Scattered Spider is widely reported to have been behind the particularly disruptive hack at M&S, one of the best-known names in British business, whose online operations have been frozen since 25 April. It has a history of focusing on a single sector at a time and is likely to target retail for a while longer, Hultquist said. Just a day before Google's warning, M&S announced that some customer data had been accessed, but this did not include usable payment or card details, or any account passwords. The Guardian understands the details taken are names, addresses and order histories. M&S said personal information had been accessed because of the "sophisticated nature of the incident." "Today, we are writing to customers informing them that due to the sophisticated nature of the incident, some of their personal customer data has been taken," the company said. Hackers from the Scattered Spider ecosystem have been behind a slew of disruptive break-ins on both sides of the Atlantic. In 2023, hackers tied to the group made headlines for hacking the casino operators MGM Resorts International and Caesars Entertainment. Law enforcement has struggled to get a handle on the Scattered Spider hacking groups, in part because of their amorphousness, the hackers' youth, and a lack of cooperation from cybercrime victims.

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Netflix said its cheaper, ad-supporter tier now has 94 million monthly active users -- an increase of more than 20 million since its last public tally in November. CNBC reports: The company and its peers have been increasingly leaning on advertising to boost the profitability of their streaming products. Netflix first introduced the ad-supported plan in November 2022. Netflix's ad-supported plan costs $7.99 per month, a steep discount from its least-expensive ad-free plan, at $17.99 per month. Netflix also said its cheapest tier reaches more 18- to 34-year-olds than any U.S. broadcast or cable network. "When you compare us to our competitors, attention starts higher and ends much higher," Netflix president of advertising Amy Reinhard said in a statement. "Even more impressive, members pay as much attention to mid-roll ads as they do to the shows and movies themselves."

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Apple's smartphone shipments in China plunged nearly 50% year-over-year in March 2025, as domestic brands like Huawei and Vivo surged ahead -- now controlling 92% of the market. MacRumors reports: The steep decline saw shipments fall to just 1.89 million units, down from 3.75 million during the same period last year. That shrinks Apple's share of the Chinese market to approximately 8%, while domestic brands now control 92% of smartphone shipments. For the entire first quarter, non-Chinese brand shipments declined over 25%, while total smartphone shipments in China actually increased by 3.3%. Apple's struggles come as domestic competitors have gained ground. Counterpoint Research reports Huawei now leads with a 19.4% share, followed by Vivo (17%), Xiaomi (16.6%), and Oppo (14.6%). Apple has slipped to fifth place with 14.1%. Several factors are driving Apple's declining fortunes. The company faces competition from rejuvenated local brands like Huawei, which has rebounded with proprietary chips and its HarmonyOS Next software. Chinese government policies appear to be playing a role too. Under government subsidies, consumers of electronics get a 15% refund of products that are priced under 6,000 yuan ($820). Apple's standard iPhone 16 starts at 5,999 yuan.

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An anonymous reader quotes a report from ZDNet: Would you believe Microsoft has announced a new Linux distribution service for its Azure cloud service? You should. For many years, the most popular operating system on Azure has not been Windows Server, it's been Linux. Last time I checked, in 2024, Azure Linux Platforms Group Program Manager Jack Aboutboul told me that 60% of Azure Marketplace offerings and more than 60% of virtual machine cores use Linux. Those figures mean it's sensible for Microsoft to make it easier than ever for Linux distributors to release first-class Linux distros on Azure. The tech giant is taking this step, said Andrew Randall, principal manager for the Azure Core Linux product management team, by making "Azure Image Testing for Linux (AITL) available 'as a service' to distro publishers." ATIL is built on Microsoft's Linux Integration Services Automation project (LISA). Microsoft's Linux Systems Group originally developed this initiative to validate Linux OS images. LISA is a Linux quality validation system with two parts: a test framework to drive test execution and a set of test suites to verify Linux distribution quality. LISA is now open-sourced under the MIT License. The system enables continuous testing of Linux images, covering a wide range of scenarios from kernel updates to complex cloud-native workloads. [...] Specifically, the ATIL service is designed to streamline the deployment, testing, and management of Linux images on Azure. The service builds on the company's internal expertise and open-source tools to provide: - Curated, Azure-optimized, security-hardened Linux images - Automated quality assurance and compliance testing for Linux distributions - Seamless integration with Azure's cloud-native services and Kubernetes environments Krum Kashan, Microsoft Azure Linux Platforms Group program manager, said in a statement: "While numerous testing tools are available for validating Linux kernels, guest OS images, and user space packages across various cloud platforms, finding a comprehensive testing framework that addresses the entire platform stack remains a significant challenge. A robust framework is essential, one that seamlessly integrates with Azure's environment while providing coverage for major testing tools, such as LTP and kselftest, and covers critical areas like networking, storage, and specialized workloads, including Confidential VMs, HPC, and GPU scenarios. This unified testing framework is invaluable for developers, Linux distribution providers, and customers who build custom kernels and images."

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BrianFagioli shares a report from BetaNews: For years, NordVPN made Linux users live in the terminal. Sure, the command-line interface technically worked, but let's not pretend it was ideal for everyone. Meanwhile, competitors like Surfshark and ExpressVPN had already given their Linux users full graphical interfaces. Now, NordVPN has finally caught up by launching its very own GUI for Linux. So, what exactly does this mean? Well, instead of typing in commands, users can now click their way through connection options, settings, and even theme preferences like light or dark mode. This will arguably make using the service on Linux much easier. [...] Just like on Windows and macOS, the NordVPN GUI lets you quickly connect to servers, activate features, and monitor your connection in a clean, modern interface. And yes, those features include fan favorites like Dedicated IP, Double VPN, Onion Over VPN, Kill Switch, and Threat Protection. In other words, the features are the same, only easier to access now. That said, some advanced tools, like Meshnet, are still CLI-only for the time being. But at least now there's a choice. And if you want to stick to the terminal, don't worry, that option hasn't gone away.

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Uber is launching a fixed-route shuttle service in major U.S. cities that offers commuters up to 50% off UberX fares during weekday peak hours. Called "Route Share," the service aims to provide a more affordable, predictable alternative to standard ride-hailing. TechCrunch reports: The commuter shuttles will drive between pre-set stops every 20 minutes, according to Sachin Kansal, Uber's chief product officer. He noted that there will be dozens of routes in each launch city -- like between Williamsburg and Midtown in NYC. The routes, which are selected based on Uber's extensive data on popular travel patterns, might have one or two additional stops to pick up other passengers. To start, riders will only ever have to share the route with up to two other co-riders. Riders can book a seat anywhere from seven days to 10 minutes before a scheduled pickup, and the app will provide them with turn-by-turn directions to get them from their house to the corner where they'll be picked up. Uber is relying on the same underlying technology that it uses for Uber Share, its shared rides offering where riders can get 15% to 30% off the cost of an UberX ride by pooling with others. Kansal told TechCrunch that Uber completes millions of shared trips annually and has been seeing more traction lately as riders look for more ways to save. Hence, Route Share. Uber envisions a future where Route Share could qualify for pre-tax commuter benefits. However, as a spokesperson noted, the company would need to find a way to match those trips with Uber XL vehicles. That's because only six-seater vehicles would meet the eligibility requirements. A potential progression of Route Share would involve autonomous vehicles, particularly in chaotic cities like New York City, where no self-driving car companies have deigned to test.

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An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: We've known for months now that Valve is expanding its Linux-based SteamOS operating system beyond the Steam Deck to other handheld PCs, starting with some versions of the Asus ROG Ally. This week, Valve began making some changes to its Steam storefront to prepare for a future when the Deck isn't the only hardware running SteamOS. A new "SteamOS Compatible" label will begin rolling out "over the next few weeks" to denote "whether a game and all of its middleware is supported on SteamOS," including "game functionality, launcher functionality, and anti-cheat support." Games that don't meet this requirement will be marked as "SteamOS Unsupported." As with current games and the Steam Deck, this label doesn't mean these games won't run, but it does mean there may be some serious compatibility issues that keep the game from running as intended. Valve says that "over 18,000 titles on Steam [will] be marked SteamOS compatible out of the gate," and that game developers won't need to do anything extra to earn the label if their titles already support the Steam Deck. SteamOS uses a collection of app translation technologies called Proton to make unmodified Windows applications run on SteamOS. This technology has dramatically improved SteamOS's game compatibility, compared to older SteamOS versions that required games to support Linux natively, but it still can't support every single game that Windows does. Valve says that the "SteamOS Compatible" label isn't meant to imply how well a game will run on the Steam Deck or any other SteamOS handheld but that this label is "just the first step." The company is "continuing to work on ways for people to have a better understanding of how games will run on their specific devices."

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