Vue normale

Configurations recommandées de Forza Horizon 6 : on souffle sur les CPU et GPU, moins sur la RAM

Si la mode est de plus en plus à la sortie des configurations recommandées très peu de temps avant le lancement des jeux vidéos, les développeurs de Playground Games (aidés par Turn10 Studios) n'ont visiblement pas décidé de céder à cette facilité concernant Forza Horizon 6. Alors que le jeu ne sort...

[Bon plan] GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 5070 + Resident Evil Requiem à 589,99 €

Si vous lorgnez la NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070, et n'êtes pas contre un "petit" Resident Evil Requiem offert en prime, voici un prix sympathique chez un revendeur français. Cdiscount propose en effet la GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 5070 WINDFORCE OC SFF au prix de base de 599,99 €, ce qui est déjà vraiment corr...

AYANEO stoppe les ventes de sa console haut de gamme, qui serait plus chère à produire que son prix de vente...

Après de longs mois de teasing, AYANEO annonçait officiellement l'arrivée de sa console portable haut de gamme NEXT 2 le 8 février 2026, et débutait dans la foulée les précommandes le 10 février. Tout semblait bien se dérouler pour cette "gaming handled" très haut de gamme, avec son imposant écran O...

Les pads thermiques avec chambre à vapeur intégrée, l'avenir du cooling "simple" pour nos CPU et GPU ?

Ces dernières années, les pads thermiques ont de plus en plus la côte, notamment en tant qu'interface thermique sur nos CPU et GPU. Sur les réseaux sociaux, on croise de plus en plus de messages d'internautes ayant abandonné les traditionnelles pâtes thermiques qu'ils utilisaient parfois depuis des...

Les GPU intégrés RDNA 4m semblent se confirmer pour Medusa Point, le processeur mobile Zen 6 d'AMD

Alors que les fuites s'accélèrent en ce mois de mars 2026 au sujet des futurs processeurs mobiles AMD Medusa Point, avec même un score bluffant récemment sur Geekbench 6, c'est au tour de la partie graphique de ces processeurs de faire parler d'elle. Le RDNA 4m semble se confirmer, mais quèsaco ?Déb...

[Bon plan] XFX Radeon RX 9060 XT 16 Go Swift OC à 389,90 € livrée

Que cela fait plaisir ! Alors qu'on désespérait de revoir une carte graphique dotée de 16 Go de VRAM sous le seuil des 400 €, voici que PcComponentes le fait, et avec la manière ! Si l'AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT 16 Go vous fait de l'œil, mais que vous n'arriviez pas à vous résoudre à l'acheter quand on l...

Microsoft bloque le hack registre pour activer le NVME natif dans Windows 11, mais un autre est déjà possible...

En décembre 2025, Microsoft mettait à disposition des utilisateurs de Windows Serveur 2025 qui le désiraient un pilote natif pour les SSD NVMe, afin de remplacer le pilote utilisé jusqu'à présent, généré à partir d'un pilote SCSI. Nicolas vous avait d'ailleurs présenté tout cela sur H&Co, ainsi...

12 Heures de Sebring 2026 : le grand bloc-notes du week-end

23 mars 2026 à 21:57

Porsche a remporté la 74e édition des 12 Heures de Sebring, course référence de l’endurance nord-américaine et deuxième manche du championnat IMSA. C’est la 20e victoire de la marque allemande au classement général dans cette épreuve emblématique.

Après un tour d’horloge, la Porsche 963 n°7 de l’équipe Porsche Penske s’est imposée sous le damier pour 1,5 seconde face à la voiture sœur. La victorieuse était pilotée par Felipe Nasr, Laurin Heinrich et Julien Andlauer. Le trio confirme ainsi son succès acquis en janvier lors des 24 Heures de Daytona.

Les Porsche 963 ont mené 273 des 343 tours de course, soit 79,6 % de la course. Et au classement des moyennes chronométriques réalisé par The B-Pillar, les six titulaires étaient aux six premières places sur les 33 pilotes de la catégorie GTP. Voilà qui est parlant.

Polémique chez Porsche

Pourtant, cette édition des 12 Heures de Sebring n’a pas été un fleuve tranquille. La lutte entre la n°7 de Felipe Nasr et la n°6 pilotée par Kévin Estre en fin de course a généré une polémique. Grognements à la radio et échanges de positions ont émaillé les 100 dernières minutes, disputées de nuit et hachées par trois neutralisations.

Estre n’était pas très content de sa deuxième place finale. Le Français s’en expliquait lors de la conférence de presse d’après-course :

« À un moment, il y a eu une consigne depuis le muret qui n’a pas été respectée. (…) Je pense que nous devions tous faire la même chose, mais d’une certaine manière Felipe [Nasr] a fait autre chose. »

À une heure de l’arrivée, la Porsche n°7 a pris le dessus sur la n°6 à l’approche de la périlleuse courbe de Sunset. « Il y aura toujours différentes versions, a répondu Felipe Nasr. La mienne, celle de l’équipe, celle des autres pilotes. Moi, je suis là pour gagner. »

« On a eu des décisions difficiles à prendre aujourd’hui, mais on a pris les bonnes pour finir 1 et 2 », a justifié Jonathan Diuguid. Le président du Team Penske était interrogé sur les ondes d’IMSA Radio.

12 Heures de Sebring : les autres, loin derrière

La principale opposition a été la Cadillac n°31 de l’équipe Action Express/Whelen. Auteur de la pole position le vendredi, le Britannique Jack Aitken n’est pas parvenu à s’immiscer dans le duel entre les Porsche. Avec Earl Bamber et le jeune Frederik Vesti, ils sont classés troisièmes, à une dizaine de secondes de la victoire, après la disqualification de la n°10.

Plus tôt dans cette édition des 12 Heures de Sebring, la V-Series.R avait été percutée par la Porsche n°6. Earl Bamber, pilote de la Cadillac, n’était pas ravi :

« On s’est battus toute la journée, on a fait de notre mieux. Franchement, on avait une bonne voiture au départ, mais plus rien à la fin. Je ne sais pas si on a subi des dégâts suite à l’impact en début de course. On a été secoués, aucune pénalité de la direction de course, ce qui était surprenant, et c’est tout. »

Comme toujours, Renger van der Zande ou Tom Blomqvist ont porté aux avant-postes les Acura ARX-06. Mais une série de pénalités en fin de course ont empêché les voitures de l’équipe Meyer-Shank de se mêler à la lutte dans le money time.

BMW doit encore apprendre

Désormais chargée de représenter les intérêts de BMW aux États-Unis, l’équipe belge WRT poursuit son apprentissage. La n°25 a terminé à 14 tours, après avoir été percutée par une Ferrari de la catégorie GTD. La n°24 affiche une cinquième place finale.

« Nous avons eu beaucoup de mal en qualifications à trouver les bons réglages pour la voiture, détaillait Sheldon van der Linde, le pilote BMW le plus performant ce week-end. Le même problème qu’à Daytona, mais nous avons prouvé que nous avons une bien meilleure voiture de course sur les longues distances. »

« Je suis plutôt content d’avoir réussi à remonter de la 8e place sur la grille, mais en même temps déçu de ne pas être monté sur le podium alors que nous étions troisièmes et quatrièmes pendant un moment. »

Nous avons attiré votre attention il y a quelques jours sur le profil du jeune américain Kaylen Frederick. Au jeu des 50 % de meilleurs tours, ce pilote de 23 ans, tout frais issu de la monoplace, s’est montré le plus rapide de son équipage à bord de la Porsche n°5 de l’équipe JDC-Miller.

« Il y a eu de vraies bonnes choses ce week-end, mais la course n’est pas vraiment allée dans notre sens dans les moments clés », a-t-il écrit sur son compte Instagram. La 963 privée a terminé au 8e rang.

Et l’Aston Martin ? La Valkyrie lutta dans la deuxième moitié du top 10 avant de s’immobiliser en début de soirée. La voiture regagna son garage, derrière le muret des stands, alors qu’Alex Riberas était au volant. Elle a tout de même terminé la course avec 12 tours de retard.

Questions pneumatiques

C’était la deuxième sortie des pneumatiques Michelin Pilot Endurance version 2026. À Sebring, toutes les équipes roulaient en « medium » dans cette gamme désormais composée de 50 % de matériaux recyclés ou durables. « Ce sera un vrai test pour la gamme 2026 », confiait le directeur de Michelin Motorsport, Matthieu Bonardel, avant l’épreuve disputée sur un tracé très exigeants avec force bosses, changements de revêtement et vibreurs.

Selon les techniciens de Michelin, la dégradation a été contenue par rapport à l’an dernier. Sur le sévère tracé floridien, la mise en température a surtout été optimisée. Les premiers tours, avec des pneus froids, sont désormais moins périlleux. Le gain se chiffre à 5 secondes par relais, contre 8 secondes à Daytona, circuit moins « énergétique ».

Après avoir testé abondamment ces gommes en conditions réelles, Cadillac, Aston Martin ou BMW cultivent un léger avantage. Il auront un peu plus d’expérience de ces nouveaux Michelin que d’autres en vue de l’ouverture du championnat du monde d’endurance (WEC) à Imola, le 20 avril.

12 Heures de Sebring : LMP2, GTD Pro, GTD…

En LMP2, la lutte a comme toujours été serrée. L’équipe United Autosport l’a emporté grâce à son Oreca n°2 pilotée par Mikkel Jensen, Hunter McElrea et Phil Fayer. Rappelons ici que la structure sera la colonne vertébrale de la future équipe McLaren en mondial.

Notons aussi que Phil Fayer est un profil intéressant. Classé bronze, ce gentleman driver canadien courut en Formule Atlantic au début des années 2000. Il fonda ensuite l’entreprise Nuvei, acteur majeur du paiement électronique sur le continent.

« J’ai adoré chaque minute dans la voiture, réagissait-il à l’arrivée, j’étais triste quand je finissais mon relais. Mais j’étais content quand ils roulaient aussi pour remonter au classement. »

En GTD Pro, la Porsche Manthey n°911 de Ricardo Feller, Klaus Bachler et Thomas Preining s’est imposée devant une autre Porsche 911 GT3 R. Ce dernier a été l’un des pilotes les plus impressionnants ce week-end.

C’était le duel des livrées : mythique au Nürburgring et pour sa première victoire en IMSA, la Porsche « Grello » a battu la Porsche « Roxy » à la célèbre déco de reptile.

12 Heures de Sebring : Fuoco en feu

En GTD, Antonio Fuoco a été la star de la course. Il s’est imposé dans cette classe avec Simon Mann et Lilou Wadoux au volant de la Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo n°21. C’est la première victoire de la version évoluée de la berlinette italienne.

L’Italien subit trois pénalités pour divers accrochages et une infraction de l’équipe AF Corse dans les stands. 7e à une demi-heure de l’arrivée, il est parvenu à l’emporter après avoir doublé l’Aston Martin n°27 de Tom Gamble dans le dernier tour de course…

Les pilotes officiels Ferrari habituellement engagés en Hypercar ont aussi féraillé en piste. Miguel Molina (Ferrari n°033) a été percuté par Fuoco, son habituel partenaire dans la 499P n°50.

« On s’est mal compris, on va se parler », a déclaré le Calabrais. Espérons pour eux qu’ils le feront vite. En tout cas, avant le coup d’envoi du championnat du monde dans moins d’un mois à Imola (Italie).

Cette édition marquait aussi les débuts de la Lamborghini Temerario GT3 en compétition. Moins sonore que sa devancière — l’Huracan — elle est toujours habillée du plaid rouge et noir de l’écurie Pfaff Motorsport.

Franck Perera, Andrea Caldarelli et Sandy Mitchell ont terminé à la 10e place dans la classe GTD Pro. La course de la Temerario a été marquée par quelques soucis de freins dans les dernières heures. Rien de bien inquiétant pour un programme qui n’en est qu’à ses balbutiements.

La prochaine manche de l’IMSA se tiendra à Long Beach, mi-avril.

A lire sur Le Blog Auto.

5 pilotes à suivre à Sebring

Le grand bilan des 24 Heures de Daytona 2026

L’article 12 Heures de Sebring 2026 : le grand bloc-notes du week-end est apparu en premier sur Le Blog Auto.

Scandale chez Super Micro : son cofondateur arrêté avec deux complices pour une fraude de grande ampleur !

L'affaire qui fait grand bruit en ce moment aux États-Unis trouve sa source en aout 2024, alors qu'Hidenburg Research publiait le rapport d'une enquête qu'il avait menée au sujet d'agissements illégaux de Super Micro Computer. Le Département de la Justice (DOJ) s'est ensuite saisi de ces allégations...

Will AI Force Source Code to Evolve - Or Make it Extinct?

23 mars 2026 à 10:34
Will there be an AI-optimized programming language at the expense of human readability? There's now been experiments with minimizing tokens for "LLM efficiency, without any concern for how it would serve human developers." This new article asks if AI will force source code to evolve — or make it extinct, noting that Stephen Cass, the special projects editor at IEEE Spectrum, has even been asking the ultimate question about our future. "Could we get our AIs to go straight from prompt to an intermediate language that could be fed into the interpreter or compiler of our choice? Do we need high-level languages at all in that future?" Cass acknowledged the obvious downsides. ("True, this would turn programs into inscrutable black boxes, but they could still be divided into modular testable units for sanity and quality checks.") But "instead of trying to read or maintain source code, programmers would just tweak their prompts and generate software afresh." This leads to some mind-boggling hypotheticals, like "What's the role of the programmer in a future without source code?" Cass asked the question and announced "an emergency interactive session" in October to discuss whether AI is signaling the end of distinct programming languages as we know them. In that webinar, Cass said he believes programmers in this future would still suggest interfaces, select algorithms, and make other architecture design choices. And obviously the resulting code would need to pass tests, Cass said, and "has to be able to explain what it's doing." But what kind of abstractions could go away? And then "What happens when we really let AIs off the hook on this?" Cass asked — when we "stop bothering" to have them code in high-level languages. (Since, after all, high-level languages "are a tool for human beings.") "What if we let the machines go directly into creating intermediate code?" (Cass thinks the machine-language level would be too far down the stack, "because you do want a compile layer too for different architecture....") In this future, the question might become 'What if you make fewer mistakes, but they're different mistakes?'" Cass said he's keeping an eye out for research papers on designing languages for AI, although he agreed that it's not a "tomorrow" thing — since, after all, we're still digesting "vibe coding" right now. But "I can see this becoming an area of active research." The article also quotes Andrea Griffiths, a senior developer advocate at GitHub and a writer for the newsletter Main Branch, who's seen the attempts at an "AI-first" languages, but nothing yet with meaningful adoption. So maybe AI coding agents will just make it easier to use our existing languages — especially typed languages with built-in safety advantages. And Scott Hanselman's podcast recently dubbed Chris Lattner's Mojo "a programming language for an AI world," just in the way it's designed to harness the computing power of today's multi-core chips.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Toutes les générations de puces Apple "Max" comparées. Alors, cette M5 Max, un bon cru ?

Au début de ce mois de mars 2026, Apple officialisait deux nouvelles puces haut de gamme pour ses ordinateurs : les M5 Pro et M5 Max. Elles avaient mis du temps à arriver, car Apple nous réservait une petite surprise : ces deux SoC utilisent l'architecture Fusion. Jusque là, seules les versions "Ult...

GrapheneOS Refuses to Comply with Age-Verification Laws

23 mars 2026 à 07:34
An anonymous reader shared this report from Tom's Hardware: GrapheneOS, the privacy-focused Android fork, said in a post on X on Friday that it will not comply with emerging laws requiring operating systems to collect user age data at setup. "GrapheneOS will remain usable by anyone around the world without requiring personal information, identification or an account," the project stated. "If GrapheneOS devices can't be sold in a region due to their regulations, so be it." The statement came after Brazil's Digital ECA (Law 15.211) took effect on March 17, imposing fines of up to R$50 million (roughly $9.5 million) per violation on operating system providers that fail to implement age verification... Motorola and GrapheneOS announced a long-term partnership at MWC on March 2, to bring to bring the hardened OS to future Motorola hardware, ending GrapheneOS's long-standing exclusivity to Google Pixel devices. A GrapheneOS-powered Motorola phone is expected in 2027. If Motorola sells devices with GrapheneOS pre-installed, those devices would need to comply with local regulations in every market where they ship, or Motorola may need to restrict sales geographically. Or, "People can buy the devices without GrapheneOS and install it themselves in any region where that's an issue," according to a post on the GrapheneOS BlueSky account. "Motorola devices with GrapheneOS preinstalled is something we want but it doesn't have to happen right away and doesn't need to happen everywhere for the partnership to be highly successful. Pixels are sold in 33 countries which doesn't include many countries outside North America and Europe." Tom's Hardware also notes that GrapheneOS "isn't the first and won't be the last company to outright refuse compliance with incoming age verification laws." "The developers of open-source calculator firmware DB48X issued a legal notice recently, stating that their software 'does not, cannot and will not implement age verification,' while MidnightBSD updated its license to ban users in Brazil."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Un ventirad "watercooling" à la sauce 2004, quand Q-Tec se moquait un peu du monde...

der8auer propose parfois sur sa chaine YouTube de ressortir du fond de ses tiroirs des ventirads CPU du début du siècle, histoire de voir ce qu'ils ont dans le ventre aujourd'hui et surtout de présenter des modèles parfois hors normes. Il avait par exemple retesté en 2023 le Danamics LMX de 2009, qu...

Some Microsoft Insiders Fight to Drop Windows 11's Microsoft Account Requirements

23 mars 2026 à 04:34
Yes, Microsoft announced it's fixing common Windows 11 complaints. But what about getting rid of that requirement to have a Microsoft account before installing Windows 11? While Microsoft didn't mention that at all, the senior editor at the blog Windows Central reports there's "a number of people" internally pushing at Microsoft to relax that requirement: Microsoft Vice President and overall developer legend Scott Hanselman has posted on X in response to someone asking him about possibly relaxing the Microsoft account requirements, saying "Ya I hate that. Working on it...." [Hanselman made that remark Friday, to his 328,200 followers.] The blog notes "It would be very easy for Microsoft to remove this requirement from a technical perspective, it's just whether or not the company can agree to make the change that needs to be decided." Elsewhere on X someone told Hanselman they wanted to see Windows "cut out the borderline malware tactics we've seen in recent years to push things like Edge, Bing, ads into the start menu, etc." Hanselman's reply? "Yes a calmer and more chill OS with fewer upsells is a goal." Q: When will we see first changes? for now it's just words... Hanselman: This month and every month this year.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Walmart Announces Digital Price Labels for Every Store in the U.S. By the End of 2026

23 mars 2026 à 01:34
Walmart is "rolling out digital price tags to replace the old paper ones," reports CNBC, planning to implement them in all U.S. stores by the end of the year: Amanda Bailey, a team leader in electronics who works at a Walmart in West Chester, Ohio, estimates that the digital shelf labels — known as DSLs — have cut the time she used to spend on pricing duties by 75%, time that has freed her up to help customers. She also said the DSLs are a game-changer because Walmart's Spark delivery drivers looking for an item will see a flashing DSL so they can more easily find the product... Sean Turner, chief technology officer of Swiftly, a retail technology and media platform serving the grocery industry, said that while it makes sense that people are raising questions about dynamic pricing, the real issue is store-level efficiency. "Digital shelf labels solve some very real operational headaches. They cut down on manual price changes, reduce checkout discrepancies, and make it easier to keep in-store and digital promotions aligned," Turner said. All of that can mean fewer surprises at the register for shoppers and better-tailored promotions. "For consumers, the biggest benefit is accuracy and consistency," Benedict said. "Shoppers want to know the price they see is the price they pay. Digital labels can also make it easier for stores to mark down perishable items in real time, which can lower food waste and create savings opportunities." A Walmart spokeswoman promised CNBC that "the price you see is the same for everyone in any given store." But the article also notes that several U.S. states "are looking to ban dynamic pricing. Pennsylvania became one of the latest states to introduce a bill outlawing the practice, following New York's Algorithmic Pricing Disclosure Act, which became law in November." And at the federal level, U.S. Senator Ben Ray Luján recently introduced the "Stop Price Gouging in Grocery Stores" act, which would ban digital labels in any grocery store over 10,000 square feet, while Congresswoman Val Hoyle is sponsoring similar legislation in the House. "There needs to be laws and enforcement to protect consumers," Hoyle tells CNBC, "and until then, I'd like to see them banned outright." CNBC adds that "While there is no reported use of digital shelf labeling being tied to surge pricing yet," in Hoyle's view "it's only a matter of time."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Trapped! Inside a Self-Driving Car During an Anti-Robot Attack

22 mars 2026 à 22:55
A man crossing the street one San Francisco night spotted a self-driving car — and decided to confront its passenger, 37-year-old tech worker Doug Fulop. The New York Times reports the man yelled that "he wanted to kill Fulop and the other two passengers for giving money to a robot." A taxi driver would have simply driven away. But Fulop's vehicle had no driver — it was a self-driving Waymo... Self-driving cars are designed to stop moving if a person is nearby. People can take advantage of that function to harass and threaten their passengers.... It was unsettling to be trapped inside a Waymo during an attack, Fulop said. "If he had kept hammering on one window instead of alternating, I'm sure he would have eventually broken through," he said. The attacker did not appear to be on drugs or otherwise impaired, but seemed to be overtaken by extreme anger at the self-driving car, Fulop said. It did not seem safe to get out and run, he added, since the man was trying to open the locked doors and said he wanted to kill the passengers. They called 911 and Waymo's support line, Fulop said. Waymo told them that it would not manually direct the car away if someone was standing nearby, and that the passengers would be OK with the doors locked. The car's software does not allow riders to jump into the driver's seat and take over during an incident. The attack lasted around six minutes. By then, bystanders had begun cheering on the man, Fulop said. That distracted the man, who moved far enough away from the car that it could finally drive away... Fulop said he had stopped using Waymo for a time after the January attack and would avoid the service at night unless the company changed its policy of not intervening when a hostile person threatened riders. "As passengers, we deserve more safety than that if someone is trying to attack us," he said. "This can't be the policy to be trapped there." The article remembers other incidents — including a 2024 video showing three women screaming as their autonomous taxi is spray-painted by vandals. And technology author/speaker Anders Sorman-Nilsson says in Los Angeles five men on e-bikes surrounded his Waymo and forced it to stop. The author felt safe inside the vehicle, according to the times, which adds "He felt reassured knowing that Waymo's many exterior cameras were recording the men. After around five minutes, he said, they gave up and rode away."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Elon Musk Announces $20B 'Terafab' Chip Plant in Texas To Supply His Companies

22 mars 2026 à 21:55
"Billionaire Elon Musk has announced plans to build a $20 billion chip plant in Austin, Texas" reports a local news station: Musk announced on Saturday night during a livestream on his social media platform X that the plant, called "Terafab," will be built near Tesla's campus and gigafactory in eastern Travis County. The long-anticipated project is a joint venture between Musk-owned properties Tesla, SpaceX and xAI... The Terafab plant is expected to begin production in 2027. Musk "has said the semiconductor industry is moving too slow to keep up with the supply of chips he expects to need," writes Bloomberg — quoting Musk as saying "We either build the Terafab or we don't have the chips, and we need the chips, so we build the Terafab." Musk detailed some specific plans, including producing chips that can support 100 to 200 gigawatts a year of computing power on Earth, and chips that can support a terawatt in space, but gave no timelines for the facility or its output... The facility is expected to make two types of chips, one of which will be optimized for edge and inference, primarily for his vehicle, robotaxi and Optimus humanoid robots. The other will be a high-power chip, designed for space that could be used by SpaceX and xAI... Musk said he expects xAI to use the vast majority of the chips. During the presentation, Musk also unveiled a speculative rendering of a future "mini" AI data center satellite, one piece of a much larger satellite system that he wants SpaceX to build to do complex computing in space. In January, SpaceX requested a license from the Federal Communications Commission to launch one million data center satellites into orbit around Earth. Musk said that the mini satellite he revealed would have the capacity for 100 kilowatts of power. "We expect future satellites to probably go to the megawatt range," Musk said. Raising money to build and launch AI data centers in space is one of the driving forces behind SpaceX's planned IPO later this year. SpaceX is expected to raise as much as $50 billion in a record-setting IPO this summer which could value it at more than $1.75 trillion, Bloomberg News reported earlier.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Tech Leaders Support California Bill to Stop 'Dominant Platforms' From Blocking Competition

22 mars 2026 à 20:34
A new bill proposed in California "goes after big tech companies" writes Semafor. Supported by Y Combinator, Cory Doctorow , and the nonprofit advocacy group Fight for the Future, it's called the "BASED" act — an acronym which stands for "Blocking Anticompetitive Self-preferencing by Entrenched Dominant platforms." As announced by San Francisco state representative Scott Wiener, the bill "will restore competition to the digital marketplace by prohibiting any digital platform with a market capitalization greater than $1 trillion and serving 100 million or more monthly users in the U.S., from favoring their own products and services on the platforms they operate." More from Scott Wiener;s announcement: For years, giant digital platforms like Apple, Amazon, Google, and Meta have used their immense power to promote their own products and services while stifling competitors — a practice also known as self-preferencing. The result has been higher prices, diminished service, and fewer options for consumers, and less innovation across the technology ecosystem. Self-preferencing also locks startups and mid-sized companies out of the online marketplace unless they play by rules set by their competitors. As a new generation of AI-powered startups seeks to enter the marketplace, their success — and public access to the innovations they produce — depends on their ability to compete on an even playing field. "Anticompetitive behavior is everywhere on the internet," said Senator Wiener, "from rigged search results, to manipulative nudges boosting the 'house' product, to anti-discount policies that raise prices, to the dreaded green bubble that 'breaks' the group chat. When the world's largest digital platforms rig the game to favor their own products and services, we all lose. By prohibiting these anticompetitive practices, the BASED Act will protect competition online, empower consumers and startups, and promote innovations to improve all our lives." The announcement includes a quote from Teri Olle, VP of the nonprofit Economic Security California Action, saying the act would "safeguard merit-based market competition. This legislation stands for a simple principle: owning the stadium doesn't mean that you get to rig the game." Some conduct prohibited by the proposed bill includes Manipulating the order of search results to favor a provider's products or services, irrespective of a merit-based process, Using non-public data generated by third-party sellers — including sales volumes, pricing, and customer behavior — to develop competing products that are subsequently boosted above the third-party sellers' product... And the announcement also notes that "under the terms of the bill, providers could not prevent consumers from obtaining a portable copy of their own data or restrict voluntary data sharing (by consumers) with third parties." Read on for reactions from DuckDuckGo, Proton, Yelp, Y Combinator, and Cory Doctorow.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Why Apple Temporarily Blocked Popular Vibe Coding Apps

22 mars 2026 à 19:19
An anonymous reader shared this report from the tech-news blog Neowin: Apple appears to have temporarily prevented apps, including Replit and Vibecode, from pushing new updates. Apple seems bothered by how apps like Replit present vibe-coded apps in a web view within the original app. This process virtually allows the app to become something else. And the new app isn't distributed via the App Store, but it still runs on the user's device... [S]uch apps would also bypass the App Store Review process that ensures that apps are safe to use and meet Apple's design and performance standards... According to the publication (via MacRumors), Apple was close to approving pending updates for such apps if they changed how they work. For instance, Replit would get the green light if its developers configure the app to open vibe-coded apps in an external browser rather than the in-app web view. Vibecode is also close to being approved if it removes features, such as the ability to develop apps specifically for the App Store.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

William Shatner Celebrates 95th Birthday, Smokes Cigar, Revisits 'Rocket Man' and Tests X Money

22 mars 2026 à 17:55
It was 60 years ago when William Shatner — born in 1931 — portrayed Captain Kirk in the TV series Star Trek. Shatner turns 95 today — and celebrated by posting a picture of himself smoking a cigar. "At 95, I'm still smokin'!" Shatner joked, adding that in life he'd learned two things. "Never waste a good cigar. Never trust anyone who says you should 'act your age.'" For more celebrations, Paramount's free/ad-supported streaming platform Pluto TV announced a "Trek TV takeover birthday celebration" that will run through April 3rd, according to TrekMovie.com, with marathon of Star Trek movies and TV shows — and even that time he was roasted on Comedy Central. ("Freeâ½ My favorite price!" Shatner quipped on X.com.) Shatner still remains a popular celebrity, even travelling to space five years ago on a Blue Origin flight past the Kármán line. Since then he's led a cruise to Antarctica — and even performed an alternate take of Captain Kirk's final scene on the Jimmy Fallon show. And this week Shatner (along with hundreds of thousands attendees) appeared at Orlando's MegaCon — and shared stories about his life with Orlando Weekly: Shatner: Last month, I was on board a cruise ship, and they said the only thing I had to do over the next three days, "before we let you go home," is sing "Rocket Man." So I thought, "I'm not going to sing 'Rocket Man' the same way that what's-his-name did. ... So, I looked at the song very carefully to see if I could find what actors call a throughline. What is the character singing? What is he singing about? And so I look through all of these weird lyrics, and all of a sudden, the word sticks out to me: "alone." So I say to the band members, "OK, let's make this song about being alone in space." And I work on it with the band and the musicians, and again on a Saturday night, I perform the number, and 4,000 people stand up and applaud "Rocket Man." And they won't let me off the stage, again and again. Four times, I get a standing ovation, wild. And that's the progression for me, of science fiction for me, as exemplified by this song. The song went from superficial to something of depth and meaning... It touched people enough for them to stand up and applaud, and I realized that is the story of science fiction... Science fiction with all its great technology has evolved into great storytelling that reaches people in a manner that is very difficult for other types of drama to do. Shatner answered questions from Slashdot readers in 2002 ("My life is my statement...") and again in 2011. ("I used to try to assemble computers way back when and they came out looking like a skateboard...") And judging by his X.com posts, Shatner is now involved in early testing of the site's upcoming digital payment system X Money.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

❌