People are disabling the "recording light" on Meta's Ray-Ban smartglasses — "by my count, thousands of people," says tech journalist Joanna Stern in a new video report: STERN: "They're hiring people on Facebook Marketplace to drill out the light for as much as $100. According to our reporting, folks are offering this service in at least 30 states — despite Meta's attempts to stop it... In most states, we found multiple listings. In the New York and New Jersey area alone there were 23 listings." Stern watched a man in New Jersey disable and then conceal the light with a drill and dental probe in a New Jersey garage (a skill he learned watching YouTube and TikTok videos). He said the same day he'd already been contacted by eight more interested customers, and Stern also found at least 10 other people willing to do the same thing, just in New Jersey. "But what we found is they're all over the country." Meta sold 7 million smartglasses in 2025, but a Meta spokesperson insisted to the videomaker that a "majority" of their smartglasses owners aren't blocking the recording light. And furthermore, they added "We aggressively target anyone advertising tampering tools, have removed thousands of violating ads and Marketplace listings for these services, and pursue legal action when appropriate." (The reporter acknowledges "many" of the Marketplace ads disappeared after they brought them to Meta's attention — and Meta also said they were working with other retailers and sellers to take down listings for smartglasses-tampering parts.) The reporter also heard from one journalist who said they'd used it so they could record the activities of federal immigration agents without being targeted. "Others told me they just don't want people asking questions when they're recording." (There's video of one young man saying "It's already difficult enough to film in public. I don't want to have a blinking light on my face.") Tampering with smartglasses isn't illegal — though it is against Meta's Terms of Service, and could void your warranty. But a lawyer in the report says recording others without consent may be illegal, depending on a wide range of "jurisdictional nuances" like whether you live in an all-party consent state or a one-party consent state. "This seems to be our new reality," the report concludes: "more cameras, more microphones everywhere, and less certainty about who and what is recording." (Tech blogger John Gruber offered this assessment. "Using a Meta platform to find people to hack a Meta device so you can surreptitiously record strangers. So perfectly Meta.") Stern's report points out that "People are trying to fight back. Apps have popped up that use Bluetooth to scan for nearby camera glasses." (In the video one app-maker wonders why Meta isn't offering the same service themselves. "There are technical solutions to these problems.") Ironically, when I watched the report on YouTube, it was preceded by... an ad for Meta's Ray-Ban AI smartglasses.

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"Texas has dethroned California as the state with the most Fortune 500 companies," reports the Los Angeles Times: The Fortune 500 list ranks the largest U.S. companies by revenue. This year, 57 of the top companies are headquartered in Texas, compared with California's 56. It's a reversal from two years ago when the Golden State had the pole position... California's corporate haters say they try to avoid the state's high costs, income taxes and strict regulations, but the western state is still a top money maker. "California dominates on nearly every other measure: its Fortune 500 companies are the most profitable ($647 billion), most valuable ($20 trillion), and employ more people than any other state (2.8 million workers)," Fortune said in a news release. Indeed, despite the naysayers, Californian companies have been leading the world in developing artificial intelligence technology as well as the latest in space and defense tech. The state is home to nearly 400 "unicorns," or billion-dollar startups — more than any other state, according to CB Insights. It also gobbled up nearly two-thirds of U.S. venture capital last year, with San Francisco Bay Area startups such as OpenAI leading the way, according to the business information platform Crunchbase. Texas and California have been in a tug-of-war for the crown. In 2024, after a decade, California bagged the top spot with 57 companies on the list, while Texas and New York tied in second with 52 companies each... The fourth spot was tied between Illinois and Ohio, with 29 companies each. Amazon was the top company on the list, ending Walmart's 13-year reign at the top of the annual Fortune 500 companies list. Amazon's 2025 revenue was $716.9 billion, compared with Walmart's $713.2 billion. Seattle-headquartered Amazon joined Exxon Mobil, General Motors, and Walmart as the only four companies to have ever held the top position since Fortune began publishing the data in 1955.

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"Can a company take away something you've already paid for?" asks the BBC. "In the world of online video games, some already do." Publishers can decide to switch off a game's servers, often leaving it effectively unplayable. Stop Killing Games, a growing consumer rights campaign started by American YouTuber Ross Scott in 2024, is challenging that practice. In January, the group submitted a petition featuring nearly 1.3 million signatures to the European Commission, triggering a public hearing in the European Parliament in April. What began as an online campaign is now awaiting a decision from one of the EU's most powerful institutions... Scott's campaign began following an announcement from the major studio Ubisoft, saying it would shut down the online-only racing game The Crew in 2024... Ubisoft has already defended its position in court. Responding to a proposed class-action lawsuit brought by two The Crew players in California, the studio argued that customers had purchased a licence to use the game, not unlimited ownership rights, and that players had been warned online services would not be available forever. The lawsuit was dismissed without prejudice in June 2025, after the plaintiffs voluntarily withdrew the case. The wider games industry has also pushed back against the campaign. Video Games Europe, which represents many of the industry's largest publishers, said shutting down online services "must be an option" when games are no longer commercially viable. It also warned that some of the campaign's proposals could make online-only games significantly more expensive to develop. "In no way are we asking companies to keep servers running or services going, they can end it any time they want," said Scott. Instead, he and his fellow campaigners argue that when a game is shut down it should be done "responsibly", with publishers considering "end-of-life plans" such as updating the game to work offline or releasing software that allows players to continue running it. Two key points from the article: "In March, French consumer group UFC-Que Choisir launched legal action against Ubisoft over the shutdown of The Crew, arguing that players were misled about the permanence of their purchase and that some of the company's contract terms were unfair." "The European Commission must respond to the European Citizens' Initiative — the petition brought by the group — by 27 July." Thanks to Alain Williams — Slashdot reader #2,972 — for sharing the article.

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The new James Bond-themed videogame 007 First Light had a budget of 1.3 billion Danish krone — a little more than USD $202 million, reports IGN, citing a report from Denmark's public service broadcaster. "Denmark's TV 2 said that makes 007 First Light the most expensive entertainment product in the country's history" — and the game "still has some way to go before breaking even." 007 First Light is estimated to have sold 2.2 million copies, generating $150 million in revenue... [Saturday IGM reported sales had jumped to 3 million copies.] The only official sales data we have comes from developer IO Interactive, which said that 007 First Light had become the fastest-selling game in the company's history, shifting 1.5 million copies in its first 24 hours... The impressive sales milestone was achieved without the aid of the Nintendo Switch 2 version, which is due out this summer. The James Bond adventure is also the highest rated IOI game ever, with an 87 on Metacritic... The developer has said it wants to make a trilogy of James Bond games. Game-tracking company Alinea Analytics tweeted their estimates that 55.1% of sales were on PS5, 33.1% on Steam, and 11.8% on Xbox (Xbox console, Windows, and cloud combined). And Polygon reports that new downloadable game content was announced Friday.

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Yesterday 2026's International Obfuscated C Code Contest concluded, with 22 new winners announced in a special three-hour livestreamed ceremony! Started 42 years ago, it's been described as the internet's longest-running contest, with entrants concocting convoluted programs glorying in the C programming language's subtleties, all while having some fun. And "For IOCCC29, the volume and quality of submissions were at near-historic heights," explains its home page. There's a "Tetris-optimized" GameBoy emulator with source code that looks like a GameBoy, as well as a quasi-Rogue-like game voted "most likely to teleport." Awards were also given for the best imaginary emulator (a virtual machine in 366 bytes of C) and the best fractional emulator (a maze generator for the Commodore 64). But every one of the 22 winning programs seems wildly creative... Quine Pong. "Running the program produces the source code to generate the next frame, formatted to display the current frame. By repeatedly compiling and running each successive frame, you can play the game. To move, pass either "w" (up) or "e" (down) as an argument..." A winning Taiwanese programmer formatted their source code in the shape of a Tardis from Doctor Who — code that displays an intricate ASCII animation of Doctor Who's 1963 opening title sequence. One winning entry emulates an IBM 7040 mainframe, first converting a program (encoded in whitespace) into ASCII-character drawings of punchcards for a FORTRAN program — and then executing that program to calculate the light visible to an observer looking at black hole, ultimately creating an image. It's all recreating what astrophysicist Jean-Pierre Luminet had to do in 1978 to generate the first-ever simulated photograph of a black hole (on an IBM 7040 mainframe). "The entry can also run other FORTRAN programs — but "they must be provided as a deck of punch cards... Tools have been provided to convert to/from decks and to interpret..." "We have added fun challenges to this year's winning entries competition..." the web site notes. "After you figure out what a given winning entry does, we encourage you to attempt the fun challenge!" Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader achowe for bringing the news (who has submitted winning entries in four different decades, starting in 1991 and continuing through 2025) — and who won again this year for a program simulating the Space Invaders-like game from Casio's 1980 MG-880 calculator. Follow the IOCCC on Mastodon.

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The new James Bond-themed videogame 007 First Light had a budget of 1.3 billion Danish krone — a little more than USD $202 million, reports IGN, citing a report from Denmark's public service broadcaster. "Denmark's TV 2 said that makes 007 First Light the most expensive entertainment product in the country's history" — and the game "still has some way to go before breaking even." 007 First Light is estimated to have sold 2.2 million copies, generating $150 million in revenue... The only official sales data we have comes from developer IO Interactive, which said that 007 First Light had become the fastest-selling game in the company's history, shifting 1.5 million copies in its first 24 hours... The impressive sales milestone was achieved without the aid of the Nintendo Switch 2 version, which is due out this summer. The James Bond adventure is also the highest rated IOI game ever, with an 87 on Metacritic... The developer has said it wants to make a trilogy of James Bond games. Game-tracking company Alinea Analytics tweeted their estimates that 55.1% of sales were on PS5, 33.1% on Steam, and 11.8% on Xbox (Xbox console, Windows, and cloud combined). And Polygon reports that new downloadable game content was announced Friday.

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Science magazine reports: For decades, string theory promised a "theory of everything" that described all particles and forces as tiny vibrating strings. Physicists hoped it could also solve one of the field's deepest problems: reconciling quantum mechanics with gravity. But as string theory grew increasingly elaborate — and experimentally unreachable — many physicists lost hope. Now, some researchers are revisiting the theory from first principles. In a paper in press at Physical Review Letters, Clifford Cheung, a physicist at the California Institute of Technology, and colleagues lay out a small set of assumptions about the universe and show that they inevitably give rise to string theory.... Cheung's study, along with another one posted to arXiv in January, starts with two reasonably conservative assumptions: that the probabilities of all possible outcomes of an event add up to 100%, and that the laws of physics are consistent for observers moving at different speeds. Each group then posits additional assumptions that have not been borne out by observations. Cheung's analysis invokes "ultrasoftness," the idea that the probability of certain particle interactions drops off at a particular rate at high energies. The second study, led by University of Michigan physicist Henriette Elvang, instead assumes "supersymmetry," a maximal coupling between matter and forces. Both groups conclude the only theory that can satisfy their assumptions is one that looks like string theory... Cheung and Elvang stress that their aim is not to prove the inevitability of string theory. "I don't have a dog in the fight; I just work here," Cheung says. Rather, the goal is to explore the space of possible theories under rigid constraints — regardless of whether they reflect reality... The one thing the researchers all agree on is that the field would benefit from more alternative models to string theory. Cheung sees the agnostic, bottom-up exploration as a step in that direction. "You can either give up on the problem because it's too culturally toxic, or you can ask: If you want to find an alternative, what do you need?" he says. "Now, we know exactly what to do." Thanks to Slashdot reader sciencehabit for sharing the article.

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As an exciting development for GPU-accelerated video decoding within the Mozilla Firefox web browser, initial support for Vulkan Video has landed in the web browser!..

A "growing wave" of Reddit's "promoted posts" are sending U.S. and European audiences to money-stealing scams that impersonate major news organizations including the BBC, the Financial Times, and The Guardian, according to new findings from Bitdefender Labs. "Domains are short-lived and rapidly rotated to evade detection," they write, noting that the impersonating sites apparently even use language "to falsely imply that the investment platform had been reviewed, approved, or vetted" by the legitimate site they're impersonating: The campaign promotes fake AI-powered investment platforms such as Wencoin STX, Warrior Coin AI, and Nevo Coin, using fabricated celebrity endorsements, cloned news websites, fake interviews, and invented financial success stories to lure victims into depositing money. Researchers Andrea Olariu and Emanuel Puscasu have identified multiple promoted Reddit posts masquerading as legitimate financial or breaking news stories. Some ads claimed that: — NVIDIA and OpenAI were "creating the future" — Heathrow police discovered hundreds of thousands of pounds in cash — Governments and banks were allegedly trying to "hide" a revolutionary AI investment platform — European regulators were "silencing" articles about AI trading systems Some Reddit ads delivered in video format, including what appeared to be a deepfake BBC news segment featuring a news anchor presenting fabricated financial headlines... Examples observed by researchers included: — Fake BBC pages discussing "$20 billion conversations" tied to AI investments — Fraudulent Financial Times articles about Heathrow airport cash seizures — Fake Guardian stories claiming governments were trying to suppress coverage of Wencoin STX or Nevo Coin The pages featured fabricated interviews, fake profit screenshots, manipulated banking documents, false testimonials, and even fictional journalists or business editors designed to make the scam look legitimate. In many cases, the content sought to create a sense of exclusivity or conspiracy, suggesting that banks, regulators, or governments were trying to suppress public access to the investment platform... Our researchers found that after users clicked links embedded within the fake Guardian articles, they were redirected to a registration form allegedly used to create a "Nevo Coin" investment account. The form requested personal contact information, including the victim's name, email address, and phone number. To increase pressure and encourage immediate action, the page warned that registration availability was limited, claiming that once all spots were filled, new user registrations would be suspended. And in the final stage, they're asked to deposit money...

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Simon Ser just published Wayland Protocols 1.49 as the latest version for this primary set of Wayland protocol definitions...

De nombreuses nouveautés était présentes chez DeepCool, avec de nouvelles gammes et de nouveaux designs qui plaisent. Du moins, qui nous plaisent. SILENTNOX PRO 360 Pour le refroidissement, DeepCool cède aux sirènes de l'écran AMOLED incurvé. Diagonale de 6.67", affichage en 2K, rien de neuf sous le soleil. Mais on retrouve une fixation magnétique qui permet de faire pivoter l'écran au-dessus de la pompe de septième génération. C'est propre, avec un petit côté lisse qu'on retrouve dans certains des derniers produits de la marque, mais DeepCool apporte aussi de la fraicheur sur les ventilateurs avec un hub central transparent, comme on avait déjà pu le voir avec le petit AN600. La différence ? On passe désormais à douze pôles, ce qui multiplie encore plus l'éclairage au passage. […]

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Dernière petite brève à propos de TRYX au COMPUTEX avec du très lourd. Car le watercooling n'est pas le seul domaine que la marque a mis en avant cette année, la preuve ! Juste wow ! Commençons avec un produit unique, dans un certain temps : un boitier Mini-ITX en inox conçu en collaboration avec une société spécialisée dans l'ameublement haut de gamme en inox. Et si le design ne conviendra pas à tout le monde, force est de constater que TRYX tente encore une fois des choses différentes, et ça marche. L'intérieur est construit autour de deux compartiments pour la carte mère et la carte graphique, avec un riser qui relie les deux. Pour le refroidissement du processeur, il faudra passer par un top flow si on garde la carte graphique, tandis qu'un radiateur de 240 mm pourra prendra sa place si on reste en iGPU. Au stade de prototype, le boitier devrait avoir une grille sur le côté afin de recouvrir le ventilateur du radiateur, ce qui permettra de ne pas voir que celui-ci est excentré selon la carte. En espérant, et cela nous semble évident, que TRYX proposera son propre radiateur. […]

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Smartphone, écouteurs, batterie externe… la valise tech grossit vite. Mais quels gadgets tech vacances valent vraiment le poids dans votre sac ? On a sélectionné les indispensables par catégorie, avec un œil sur la compatibilité avec les services Bouygues Telecom — pour partir léger et connecté. 🔗 Liens sponsorisés : certains liens présents dans cet […]

L'article Gadgets tech vacances 2026 : notre sélection pour partir connecté et léger a été publié en premier sur Bbox-Mag

U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders announced a plan for the public to take a 50% ownership stake in AI companies, remembers the Associated Press. And then OpenAI's Sam Altman "told Sanders that he, too, wants the public to have equity in AI companies." Though the CEO said he couldn't support Sanders' threshold of 50%, he nonetheless wanted to work with him to advocate for the general idea, according to people with knowledge of the conversation. The nearly hourlong meeting in Sanders' Senate office this week, held at Altman's request, highlighted the inherent tension between AI powerhouses and policymakers as Americans are increasingly asked to accept the costs of the AI boom even as they remain unconvinced of its direct benefits. Yet it's also creating odd political bedfellows fueled by populism as politicians from Sanders to President Donald Trump embrace giving the public a stake in AI's growth. Speaking to reporters on Air Force One on Friday, Trump described a potential partnership "where the American people can benefit from the success of AI" and said executives from leading AI companies will visit the White House, "probably next week," to discuss the idea. The article points out that Altman also met with congressional leaders from both of America's political parties.

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A month ago I wrote about Linux scheduler work to help boost gaming performance on old "potato" hardware with Intel engineer Peter Zijlstra noting that Linux cgroup scheduling has continued to be "a pain in the arse." This work continues advancing with a third iteration of these "flatten the pick" patches being posted...

On vous propose donc une dernière vidéo pour ce dimanche et nous passons maintenant chez LIAN LI, qui était tout simplement notre premier rendez-vous de ce troisième jour au Computex 2026. Et autant le dire tout de suite, la journée commençait déjà à être compliquée physiquement. Après plusieurs jours passés à Singapour pour les 20 ans de ZOTAC GAMING, suivis d'un enchaînement de rendez-vous dès le dimanche sur le salon taïwanais, la fatigue commençait sérieusement à se faire sentir. Mais heureusement, les nouveautés présentées par la marque étaient suffisamment nombreuses pour nous maintenir éveillés. Comme toujours chez LIAN LI, impossible de s'ennuyer tant le stand regorgeait de nouveaux produits. La marque continue de faire évoluer ses différentes gammes de boîtiers et présentait cette année plusieurs nouvelles déclinaisons de sa célèbre série O11. Une famille de produits devenue incontournable chez les amateurs de configurations haut de gamme, de watercooling et de setups panoramiques. Les nouvelles versions apportent encore davantage de modularité, de possibilités d'intégration et bien sûr une esthétique toujours aussi travaillée. […]

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Nous vous proposons maintenant de découvrir les nouveautés de SYNOLOGY au Computex 2026. Et autant le dire tout de suite, nous sommes ici sur un sujet qui passionnera davantage Sébastien que moi-même. C'est donc lui qui prend les commandes de cette vidéo afin de nous faire découvrir les dernières innovations de la marque, qu'elles soient matérielles ou logicielles. Une présence particulièrement intéressante tant SYNOLOGY continue de faire évoluer son offre au-delà du simple NAS que tout le monde connaît. Car si la marque est aujourd'hui considérée comme l'un des leaders mondiaux du stockage réseau, elle développe désormais un véritable écosystème complet autour de la gestion, de la sauvegarde, du partage et de la sécurisation des données. Une stratégie qui permet à l'entreprise de répondre aussi bien aux besoins des particuliers qu'à ceux des PME et des grandes entreprises. […]

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The VK_GOOGLE_display_timing extension for obtaining display timing information that can be useful for frame-pacing and eliminating micro-stuttering in games now has direct display mode support with KHR_display for the Mesa Vulkan drivers. This now merged addition immediately benefits the Intel ANV and Radeon RADV drivers as well as the PowerVR, Turnip, and V3DV drivers too...

Ahead of the Linux 7.1-rc7 test kernel release due out later today, a pull request has been submitted of some "x86 fixes" for this kernel release. Most notable with this pull request is acknowledging some additional AMD Zen 6 CPU models...

Broadcom V3D 3.3 and V3D 4.1 graphics IP is set to be deprecated and removed from the V3D kernel graphics/display driver after the Mesa driver support was removed two years ago already. The situation in both cases amount to lack of hardware by developers for testing and with that likely no other known users of these particular Broadcom graphics in selects SoCs...