This year Dell moved to soldered RAM for its XPS 14 and 16, writes Digital Trends, which "makes it impossible to upgrade, or even repair." "This was a big change from the past, where the XPS 15 and 17 were both celebrated for their upgradability." Of course, Dell isn't the first to make the transition. In fact, they're one of the last, which is what makes the decision so much tougher to swallow. Where soldered RAM was previously limited to just MacBooks and ultrabooks, it's now affecting most high-performance laptops for gaming as well. Even the fantastic ROG Zephyrus G14 moved to soldered memory this year. After two months of research, the article's author acknowledges "there are tangible benefits to companies using soldered RAM, and all the people I spoke to while writing this agree that they outweigh the downsides, but how that applies to the end-user is a bit more complicated." If there's one thing and one thing only that soldered RAM is indisputably good for, it's saving space. [Haval Othman, a senior director of experience engineering at HP] explained the benefits, saying: "If battery life, mobility, form factor (thin and light), and power efficiency are my priority among other design choices, then my mind immediately goes to soldered RAM; because that's where soldered RAM can be beneficial and power-efficient, which will lead to longer battery life. Plus, it's going to give me more space on the motherboard, so I can design the product thinner and lighter. [...] If we want a thin product, the trade-off is soldering more of the devices onto the board." This tracks. In a laptop, there's only so much space that can be used for components, and that free space grows smaller by the year to make ultrabooks possible. They're an industrywide trend that was first popularized by Apple, and the rest of the laptop manufacturing world quickly caught on. Each year, laptops are released thinner and lighter, and that means having to squeeze the components together in new, innovative ways... Soldering the memory down onto the motherboard means that it can be attached almost anywhere within the laptop instead of being slotted into a specific part of it. It effectively makes the laptop thinner by cutting back on the space that the RAM module takes up. The space saved by soldering memory can be used for other things, such as a bigger battery.... All three companies that I spoke to stress the form factor much more than any tangible cost benefits... Stuart Gill, director of global media relations, campaigns, and corporate content [said] "Both soldered and socketed RAM designs are now quite mature. As a result, we see no impact on the manufacturing process and, therefore, the cost to the consumer." SO-DIMM chips also have "relatively limited bandwidth," according to HP's Othman, so "while when you solder the memory chips onto the board, you can build it for a much wider bandwidth." But the article ends by looking to the future. "The good news is that SO-DIMM memory might eventually be replaced by the CAMM2 standard." Recently approved by JEDEC, CAMM2 is said to be significantly thinner, and it'll be available both in soldered and non-soldered variants. Using CAMM2 will allow laptops to stack up to 128GB of RAM, and the frequencies are said to be going up, too. CAMM2 can also activate dual-channel memory with just a single module.

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In September NASA's James Webb Space Telescope investigated an exoplanet 8.6 times as massive as Earth, and "revealed the presence of carbon-bearing molecules including methane and carbon dioxide." Webb's discovery adds to recent studies suggesting that [planet] K2-18 b could be a Hycean exoplanet, one which has the potential to possess a hydrogen-rich atmosphere and a water ocean-covered surface... The planet's large size — with a radius 2.6 times the radius of Earth — means that the planet's interior likely contains a large mantle of high-pressure ice, like Neptune, but with a thinner hydrogen-rich atmosphere and an ocean surface. Hycean worlds are predicted to have oceans of water. However, it is also possible that the ocean is too hot to be habitable or be liquid. NASA's announcement included some additional context: K2-18 b orbits the cool dwarf star K2-18 in the habitable zone and lies 120 light-years from Earth in the constellation Leo. Exoplanets such as K2-18 b, which have sizes between those of Earth and Neptune, are unlike anything in our solar system. This lack of equivalent nearby planets means that these 'sub-Neptunes' are poorly understood, and the nature of their atmospheres is a matter of active debate among astronomers. The suggestion that the sub-Neptune K2-18 b could be a Hycean exoplanet is intriguing, as some astronomers believe that these worlds are promising environments to search for evidence for life on exoplanets... The abundance of methane and carbon dioxide, and shortage of ammonia, support the hypothesis that there may be a water ocean underneath a hydrogen-rich atmosphere in K2-18 b. Long-time Slashdot reader Baron_Yam noticed some sites resurfacing the news from September this week with more spectacular headlines, like "NASA discovered a planet twice as big as Earth with a gas that is 'only produced by life'" and "Discovery... sparks huge excitement among astronomers. NASA's announcement? It's early Webb observations "provided a possible detection of a molecule called dimethyl sulfide. On Earth, this is only produced by life." The bulk of the dimethyl sulfide in Earth's atmosphere is emitted from phytoplankton in marine environments. The inference of dimethyl sulfide is less robust and requires further validation. "Upcoming Webb observations should be able to confirm if dimethyl sulfide is indeed present in the atmosphere of K2-18 b at significant levels," explained Nikku Madhusudhan, an astronomer at the University of Cambridge and lead author of the paper announcing these results. While K2-18 b lies in the habitable zone, and is now known to harbor carbon-bearing molecules, this does not necessarily mean that the planet can support life. But it's all a validation of the new discoveries being made possible by space telescopes — new and old. "The first insight into the atmospheric properties of this habitable-zone exoplanet came from observations with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, which prompted further studies..." "This result was only possible because of the extended wavelength range and unprecedented sensitivity of Webb, which enabled robust detection of spectral features with just two transits," said Madhusudhan... "These results are the product of just two observations of K2-18 b, with many more on the way," explained team member Savvas Constantinou of the University of Cambridge. "This means our work here is but an early demonstration of what Webb can observe in habitable-zone exoplanets." [...] The team now intends to conduct follow-up research with the telescope's MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) spectrograph that they hope will further validate their findings and provide new insights into the environmental conditions on K2-18 b. "Our ultimate goal is the identification of life on a habitable exoplanet, which would transform our understanding of our place in the universe," concluded Madhusudhan. "Our findings are a promising step towards a deeper understanding of Hycean worlds in this quest."

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Japan's moon lander "has woken up again," reports the Register, "having survived three lunar nights." A post on social media from the lander's X account confirmed that once more, Japan's Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) had defied the odds and snapped a picture of the lunar surface using its navigation camera. SLIM was revived a few weeks ago, after a second lunar night. However, with telemetry showing that some of the electronics (temperature sensors) and battery cells were malfunctioning, the chances of the lander making it through a third lunar night seemed remote. Yet against all odds, SLIM has stirred once more on the lunar surface despite lacking heaters to keep its electronics warm.

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An anonymous reader shared this report from the Associated Press: Poland's prosecutor general told the parliament on Wednesday that powerful Pegasus spyware was used against hundreds of people during the former government in Poland, among them elected officials. Adam Bodnar told lawmakers that he found the scale of the surveillance "shocking and depressing...." The data showed that Pegasus was used in the cases of 578 people from 2017 to 2022, and that it was used by three separate government agencies: the Central Anticorruption Bureau, the Military Counterintelligence Service and the Internal Security Agency. The data show that it was used against six people in 2017; 100 in 2018; 140 in 2019; 161 in 2020; 162 in 2021; and then nine in 2022, when it stopped.... Bodnar said that the software generated "enormous knowledge" about the "private and professional lives" of those put under surveillance. He also stressed that the Polish state doesn't have full control over the data that is gathered because the system operates on the basis of a license that was granted by an Israeli company. "Pegasus gives its operators complete access to a mobile device, allowing them to extract passwords, photos, messages, contacts and browsing history and activate the microphone and camera for real-time eavesdropping."

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They're calling it "the world's largest 3D printer," but also "the factory of the future" — not just a 3D printer, but a manufacturing system. It's the succcessor to a 3D printer that could create an entire house, cutting construction time and labor, according to the Associated Press. And this one "may one day create entire neighborhoods." It has a voracious appetite, consuming as much as 500 pounds (227 kilograms) of material per hour... The university wants to show how homes can be constructed nearly entirely by a printer with a lower carbon footprint. The buildings and construction sector accounts for roughly 37% of global greenhouse gas emissions, largely due to the production and use of materials such as cement, steel and aluminum that have a significant carbon footprint, according to the United Nations Environment Programme. Such printed buildings can be recycled, which is unique compared to current construction. "You can basically deconstruct it, you can grind it up if you wish, the 3D printed parts, and reprint with them, do it again," Dagher said before the event... But it can be used for a variety of other creations and already has been used for a range of things, from boats to defense department structures. The project is partly funded by the U.S. military, according to the BBC. "Maine University says it hopes the printer can be used to make affordable housing, as well as bridges, boats and wind turbines."

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"South Korea is considering prohibiting the use of iPhones and smart wearable devices inside military buildings," reports the Defense Post, "due to increasing security concerns." But the blog Apple Insider argues the move "has less to do with security and more to do with a poorly crafted mobile device management suite coupled with nationalism..." A report on Tuesday morning claims that the ban is on all devices capable of voice recording and do not allow third-party apps to lock this down — with iPhone specifically named... According to sources familiar with the matter cited by Tuesday's report, the iPhone is explicitly banned. Android-based devices, like Samsung's, are exempt from the ban... The issue appears to be that the South Korean National Defense Mobile Security mobile device management app doesn't seem to be able to block the use of the microphone. This particular MDM was rolled out in 2013, with use enforced across all military members in 2021. The report talks about user complaints about the software, and inconsistent limitations depending on make, model, and operating system. A military official speaking to the publication says that deficiencies on Android would be addressed in a software update. Discussions are apparently underway to extend the total ban downwards to the entire military. The Army is said to have tried the ban as well... Seven in 10 South Korean military members are Samsung users. So, the ban appears to be mostly symbolic. Thanks to Slashdot reader Kitkoan for sharing the news.

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While AMD Zen 4 processors whether it be the Ryzen 7000/8000 desktop/mobile series or EPYC 8004/9004 series server processors are already performing very well on Linux and with great power efficiency against the competition as shown in dozens of Phoronix articles at this point, it turns out there's been a minor power/performance optimization left untapped yet under Linux for select Zen 4 processors. A new patch series posted this Sunday allows for this "fast CPPC" feature to be utilized on supported processors...

On top of prior DRM-Next pull requests for the AMD kernel graphics driver working on next-gen GPU support along with fixes and other low-level improvements, on Friday another batch of new feature code was submitted to DRM-Next ahead of the Linux 6.10 merge window opening up in mid-May...

A commit made to the Linux kernel three weeks ago accidentally broke the default CPU security mitigations for non-x86 CPUs. With code sent in today via x86/urgent ahead of tonight's Linux 6.9-rc6 release, that accidental default breakage is being addressed...

It's another speech-recognizing, AI-powered handheld device "about half the size of a phone," writes CNET. (Though the $199 device comes with a keyboard and a tiny 2.8-inch screen.) "The Rabbit R1 can identify items in its environment. Point it at a plant, and it can tell you what kind it is. Aim it at your lunch, and it can tell you what's in it. "it also feels a bit like a novelty so far...." It can call an Uber, order dinner from Doordash, translate conversations, record voice memos, play songs from Spotify and more. Your phone can already do all of those things, but [CEO and founder Jesse] Lyu is promoting the Rabbit R1 as a faster and more natural way to do so... So far, the Rabbit R1 feels fun, fresh and interesting, but also frustrating at times. It intrigues me, but it also hasn't convinced me yet that there's room for another gadget in my life.... Many of the things it can do today feel smartphone-esque, like asking for the weather or playing songs on Spotify... Visual search is the most interesting feature so far... It's pretty accurate for the most part so far. When I pointed it at my salad during lunch, it was able to tell me most of the ingredients. That's not what I asked. After all, who orders a dish without knowing what's in it? I asked the Rabbit R1 to tell me how many calories were in my lunch. While it couldn't provide the answer I wanted, I was impressed with its response... Overall, Rabbit R1's visual analysis worked pretty well for identifying things like plants and characters from pop culture. When describing my colleague's sneakers, the Rabbit R1 got the brand wrong... So far, I've used the Rabbit R1 to take voice memos, translate speech from Spanish to English, and answer basic questions about things like weather forecasts. These features work as expected for the most part. The article points out that Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses "also have multimodal AI, meaning the eyewear can 'see' what you see and tell you about it," and "you can already do something like this on your phone through Google's Gemini assistant on Android phones (or the Gemini section of the Google app for the iPhone). "It's also very reminiscent of Google Lens, which has been around for years..."

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Cloud Hypervisor 39 was released on Saturday for this cloud-focused, Rust-based VMM started by Intel and now a multi-vendor Linux Foundation project...

Oui, vous ne rêvez pas, nous vous proposons de gagner, en partenariat avec ZOTAC et NVIDIA, de gagner une énormissime carte graphique, à savoir la RTX 4080 SUPER AMP EXTREME AIRO... V'là le cadeau de folie les copains... Le concours se fait via Gleam et vous avez diverses opérations plutôt faciles à mener pour participer. ATTENTION, c'est le dernier jour pour participer... […]

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Les prix des processeurs maintenant. On commence chez les bleus, avec le 13400F qui prend 3 euros, le 13600K qui perd 5 euros, le 13900K qui se fait + 5 euros, le 14600K fait également + 5 euros. Le 14700K baisse, de son côté, de 7 euros. Le 14900K reste au même tarif. Et chez AMD alors ? Eh bien, nous avons de dire que c'est un peu la même, des hausses et des baisses. […]

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Since going beta in 2020, the Zrythm open-source digital audio workstation software has been inching its way toward a v1.0 release. On Saturday marked the release of v1.0.0-rc.1 as a release candidate for the upcoming v1.0 release of this GTK-based digital audio workstation (DAW) software...

Merged on Friday to the development codebase for the LLVM/Clang 19 compiler is support for the Arm Neoverse N3, V3, and V3AE SoCs...

Semaine variée dans les tests avec un combat acharné de processeurs, du refroidissement, un boitier, un clavier... Deux alimentations ! Pas d'équité donc, mais des produits fort intéressants, voire originaux. On (re)découvre ça de suite ! […]

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Japan's moon lander "has woken up again," reports the Register, "having survived three lunar nights." A post on social media from the lander's X account confirmed that once more, Japan's Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) had defied the odds and snapped a picture of the lunar surface using its navigation camera. SLIM was revived a few weeks ago, after a second lunar night. However, with telemetry showing that some of the electronics (temperature sensors) and battery cells were malfunctioning, the chances of the lander making it through a third lunar night seemed remote. Yet against all odds, SLIM has stirred once more on the lunar surface despite lacking heaters to keep its electronics warm.

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What happened after India banned TikTok? The move "mostly drew widespread support" notes the Associated Press, in a country "where protesters had been calling for a boycott of Chinese goods since the deadly confrontation in the remote Karakoram mountain border region." "There was a clamour leading up to this, and the popular narrative was how can we allow Chinese companies to do business in India when we're in the middle of a military standoff," said Nikhil Pahwa, a digital policy expert and founder of tech website MediaNama. Just months before the ban, India had also restricted investment from Chinese companies, Pahwa added. "TikTok wasn't a one-off case. Today, India has banned over 500 Chinese apps to date." At the time, India had about 200 million TikTok users. And the company also employed thousands of Indians. TikTok users and content creators, however, needed a place to go — and the ban provided a multi-billion dollar opportunity to snatch up a big market. Within months, Google rolled out YouTube Shorts and Instagram pushed out its Reels feature. Both mimicked the short-form video creation that TikTok had excelled at. "And they ended up capturing most of the market that TikTok had vacated," said Pahwa. TikTok is also banned in Nepal and Somalia, according to Mashable, and the Associaterd Press adds that it's now also banned in Pakistan, Nepal and Afghanistan "and restricted in many countries in Europe." Their article concludes that "for the most part, content creators and users in the four years since the ban have moved on to other platforms." They quote one frequent TikTok user as saying they just switched to Instagram after the ban, and "It wasn't really a big deal."

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An anonymous reader shared this report from the Associated Press: Tech giant Cisco Systems on Wednesday joined Microsoft and IBM in signing onto a Vatican-sponsored pledge to ensure artificial intelligence is developed and used ethically and to benefit the common good... The pledge outlines key pillars of ethical and responsible use of AI. It emphasizes that AI systems must be designed, used and regulated to serve and protect the dignity of all human beings, without discrimination, and their environments. It highlights principles of transparency, inclusion, responsibility, impartiality and security as necessary to guide all AI developments. The document was unveiled and signed at a Vatican conference on Feb. 28, 2020... Pope Francis has called for an international treaty to ensure AI is developed and used ethically, devoting his annual peace message this year to the topic.

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