Vue lecture

Meta Is Building a Smart TV In VR

Meta has officially launched Horizon TV, a virtual reality "smart TV" app for its Quest headsets. The app mirrors modern smart TV interfaces with deep-linked streaming apps and curated recommendations -- but it's still missing major players like Netflix and Disney+. From a report: Except Horizon TV isn't running on a TV or streaming stick, but on the company's Meta Quest headsets. Unveiled at Meta Connect last month, the app is a big part of Meta's push to attract older, less gaming-focused audiences to VR -- a push that also includes a partnership with James Cameron, and investments into sports, and other types of leanback entertainment content. Re-creating the smart TV experience in virtual reality also represents a monetization opportunity for Meta, which has for some time now tried to figure out how to bring advertising to VR. However, the approach also means that Meta is inheriting some of the very problems smart TV platform operators have struggled with for a long time. And if consumers do warm up to watching more content with their headsets, they're bound to realize that even in VR, you can't escape the collateral damage of the streaming wars.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

  •  

Google DeepMind Partners With Fusion Startup

Google DeepMind is partnering with Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS) to use its Torax AI software to simulate and optimize plasma behavior inside the company's Sparc fusion reactor. TechCrunch reports: There's a reason Google keeps coming back to the problem: AI might be uniquely suited to making fusion power possible. One of the biggest challenges facing fusion startups is keeping the plasma inside a reactor hot enough for long enough. Unlike nuclear fission reactions, which are self-sustaining, fusion reactions are difficult to maintain outside of stars like the Sun. Without that sort of mass and gravity, the plasma is constantly in danger of diffusing and snuffing itself out. In CFS's reactors, powerful magnets substitute for gravity to help corral the plasma, but they're not perfect. Reactor operators have to develop control software that can enable the device to continuously react to changing plasma conditions. Problem is, there are almost too many knobs to turn, certainly more than a human is capable of. That's the sort of problem that AI excels at. Experts have cited AI as one of the key technologies that has enabled the industry's remarkable advances over the past several years. CFS is currently building Sparc, its demonstration reactor, in a suburb outside Boston. The device is about two-thirds completed, and when finished later in 2026, the startup is predicting that it will be the first fusion device capable of producing more power than the plant needs to run itself. Google said Torax can be used with reinforcement learning or evolutionary search models to find the "most efficient and robust paths to generating net energy." The two companies are also exploring whether AI can be used to control the reactor's operation.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

  •  

Open Source GZDoom Community Splinters After Creator Inserts AI-Generated Code

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: If you've even idly checked in on the robust world of Doom fan development in recent years, you've probably encountered one of the hundreds of gameplay mods, WAD files, or entire commercial games based on GZDoom. The open source Doom port -- which can trace its lineage back to the original launch of ZDoom back in 1998 -- adds modern graphics rendering, quality-of-life additions, and incredibly deep modding features to the original Doom source code that John Carmack released in 1997. Now, though, the community behind GZDoom is publicly fracturing, with a large contingent of developers uniting behind a new fork called UZDoom. The move is in apparent protest of the leadership of GZDoom creator and maintainer Cristoph Oelckers (aka Graf Zahl), who recently admitted to inserting untested AI-generated code into the GZDoom codebase. "Due to some disagreements -- some recent; some tolerated for close to 2 decades -- with how collaboration should work, we've decided that the best course of action was to fork the project," developer Nash Muhandes wrote on the DoomWorld forums Wednesday. "I don't want to see the GZDoom legacy die, as do most all of us, hence why I think the best thing to do is to continue development through a fork, while introducing a different development model that highly favors transparent collaboration between multiple people." [...] Zahl defended the use of AI-generated snippets for "boilerplate code" that isn't key to underlying game features. "I surely have my reservations about using AI for project specific code," he wrote, "but this here is just superficial checks of system configuration settings that can be found on various websites -- just with 10x the effort required." But others in the community were adamant that there's no place for AI tools in the workflow of an open source project like this. "If using code slop generated from ChatGPT or any other GenAI/AI chatbots is the future of this project, I'm sorry to say but I'm out," GitHub user Cacodemon345 wrote, summarizing the feelings of many other developers. In a GitHub bug report posted Tuesday, user the-phinet laid out the disagreements over AI-generated code alongside other alleged issues with Zahl's top-down approach to pushing out GZDoom updates.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

  •  

Chinese Criminals Made More Than $1 Billion From Those Annoying Texts

The U.S. is awash with scam text messages. Officials say it has become a billion-dollar, highly sophisticated business benefiting criminals in China. From a report: Your highway toll payment is now past due, one text warns. You have U.S. Postal Service fees to pay, another threatens. You owe the New York City Department of Finance for unpaid traffic violations. The texts are ploys to get unsuspecting victims to fork over their credit-card details. The gangs behind the scams take advantage of this information to buy iPhones, gift cards, clothing and cosmetics. Criminal organizations operating out of China, which investigators blame for the toll and postage messages, have used them to make more than $1 billion over the last three years, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Behind the con, investigators say, is a black market connecting foreign criminal networks to server farms that blast scam texts to victims. The scammers use phishing websites to collect credit-card information. They then find gig workers in the U.S. who will max out the stolen cards for a small fee. Making the fraud possible: an ingenious trick allowing criminals to install stolen card numbers in Google and Apple Wallets in Asia, then share the cards with the people in the U.S. making purchases half a world away.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

  •  

Apple Readies High-End MacBook Pro With Touch, Hole-Punch Screen

Speaking of the new MacBook Pro, which Apple launched on Wednesday, Bloomberg News reports that the company is preparing to launch a touch-screen version of its Mac computer, reversing course on a stance that dates back to co-founder Steve Jobs. From the report: The company is readying a revamped MacBook Pro with a touch display for late 2026 or early 2027 [non-paywalled link], according to people with knowledge of the matter. The new machines, code-named K114 and K116, will also have thinner and lighter frames and run the M6 line of chips. In making the move, Apple is following the rest of the computing industry, which embraced touch-screen laptops more than a decade ago. The company has taken years to formulate its approach to the market, aiming to improve on current designs. Bloomberg News first reported in January 2023 that Apple was working on a touch-screen MacBook Pro. The new laptops will feature displays with OLED technology, the same standard used in iPhones and iPad Pros, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the products haven't been announced. It will mark the first time that this higher-end, thinner system is used in a Mac.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

  •  

Sal Khan Will Become the Public Face of the TED Conference

The TED conference is changing hands, and education pioneer Sal Khan will be the new "vision steward" for the institution long headed by Chris Anderson. From a report: The move aims to ensure the future of the organization, while keeping it a not-for-profit entity. Khan, founder and CEO of Khan Academy, will be the public face of TED, with Logan McClure Davda taking over as CEO. Davda, who previously served as the organization's head of impact and was the co-founder of its fellows program, will run day-to-day operations. Khan remains CEO of Khan Academy while joining TED's board. Jay Herratti, who has served as CEO since 2021, will remain on TED's board. TED announced in February it was seeking new leadership and structure and put out an open call for proposals. The company held dozens of discussions, including some that would have transformed the organization into a for-profit venture. The organization's flagship conference is also headed for a big change, with 2026 being its last year in Vancouver, with plans to hold future events somewhere in California.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

  •  

Meta Uncovers RDSEED Architectural Issue In AMD Zen 5 CPUs

Over the years we have seen various workarounds like disabling RDSEED for select AMD CPUs due to hardware bugs and early on in the Zen days were also some RdRand issues due to different problems. It turns out the newest AMD EPYC 5th Gen "Turin" processors have a new RDSEED issue...
  •  

Linux Affected By Decade Old Bug In Software RAID Around O_DIRECT Usage

A Phoronix reader pointed out a bug report from 2015 now getting renewed interest... Linux software RAID via MD RAID, DRBD, LVM RAID, and similar software-based solutions can be broken from user-space around O_DIRECT usage. The issue is that these RAID arrays can be put silently into an inconsistent state across disks...
  •  

Fossil Fuels To Dominate Global Energy Use Past 2050, McKinsey Says

Oil, gas and coal will continue to dominate the world's energy mix well beyond 2050, as soaring electricity demand outpaces the shift to renewables, according to a new McKinsey report. From a report: McKinsey expects fossil fuels to account for about 41-55% of global energy consumption in 2050, down from today's 64% but higher than previous projections. U.S. data-center-related power demand is expected to grow nearly 25% a year until 2030, while demand from data centers globally would average 17% growth per year between 2022 and 2030, especially in OECD countries. Alternative fuels are not likely to achieve broad adoption before 2040 unless mandated, but renewables do have the potential to provide 61-67% of the 2050 global power mix, McKinsey said.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

  •  

Logitech Open To Adding an AI Agent To Board of Directors, CEO Says

Hanneke Faber, CEO of global tech manufacturing company Logitech, says she'd be open to the idea of having an AI-powered board member. From a report: "We already use [AI agents] in almost every meeting," Faber said at the Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit in Washington, D.C., on Monday. While she said AI agents today (like Microsoft Copilot and internal bots) mostly take care of summarization and idea generation, that's likely to change owing to the pace at which the technology is developing. "As they evolve -- and some of the best agents or assistants that we've built actually do things themselves -- that comes with a whole bunch of governance things," Faber said. "You have to keep in mind and make sure you really want that bot to take action. But if you don't have an AI agent in every meeting, you're missing out on some of the productivity." "That bot, in real time, has access to everything," she continued.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

  •  

Le vote pour Chat Control repoussé : une demi-victoire pour les défenseurs de la confidentialité ?

Début septembre, nous vous relayions un projet de réglementation européenne inquiétant. Surnommé Chat Control, son objectif officiel est de lutter contre la criminalité en ligne et plus particulièrement les abus sur mineurs, en instaurant un traçage des individus ayant un lien potentiel avec ces act...

  •  

IMF Warns About Soaring Global Government Debt

The IMF has issued a stark warning over soaring global government debt, saying it is on track to exceed 100% of GDP by 2029. Semafor: Such a ratio would be the highest since 1948, when large economies were rebuilding post-war. Today, "there is little political appetite for belt-tightening," The Economist wrote: Rich nations are reluctant to raise taxes on their beleaguered electorates -- but they're facing pressure to spend more on defense, and on social services for aging populations. Higher long-term bond yields, meanwhile, suggest investor wariness over governments' balance sheets. In the short term, the debt concerns manifest in political disruption: France's budget fight recently toppled another government, while the US federal shutdown highlights the tension between new spending demands and deficit reduction.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

  •  

ROG Xbox Ally et Ally X : c'est le jour J, elles sont disponibles ! Mais faut-il craquer ?

Nous sommes le 16 octobre 2025, c'est donc aujourd'hui que sortent officiellement les nouvelles consoles portables issues du partenariat entre ROG et Xbox : les ROG Xbox Ally et ROG Xbox Ally X. À partir d'aujourd'hui à 18h00 pétante, il vous est possible d'acheter la version de base "Ally" à 599 €,...

  •  

'China Has Overtaken America'

China now generates well over twice as much electricity as the United States. The country's economy has become substantially larger than America's in real terms, measured at purchasing power parity, economist Paul Krugman wrote this week. The Trump administration has moved aggressively against renewable energy development. It rolled back Biden's tax incentives for renewables through the One Big Beautiful Bill. The administration is attempting to stop a nearly completed offshore wind farm that could power hundreds of thousands of homes. It canceled $7 billion in grants for residential solar panels. A solar energy project that would have powered almost 2 million homes was killed. The administration canceled $8 billion in clean energy grants, mostly in Democratic states, and is reportedly planning to cancel tens of billions more. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said solar power is unreliable because "you have to have power when the sun goes behind a cloud and when the sun sets, which it does almost every night." California has already integrated substantial solar power into its grid through battery storage technology. Republican support for higher education has collapsed over the past decade, according to polling data. The administration has also targeted vaccines and research in multiple areas. Krugman argues that by 2028 America will have fallen so far behind China that it is unlikely to catch up.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

  •  

South Korea Abandons AI Textbooks After Four-Month Trial

South Korea's government has stripped AI-powered textbooks of their official status after a single semester of use. The textbooks were introduced in March for math, English, and computer science classes as a flagship initiative under former President Yoon Suk Yeol. Students and teachers complained about technical problems, factual inaccuracies, and increased workload. The government spent more than 1.2 trillion won ($850 million) on the program. Publishers invested around 800 billion won ($567 million). The textbooks were reclassified as supplementary material. Adoption rates dropped from 37% in the first semester to 19% in September. Only 2,095 schools now use them, about half the number from earlier in the year.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

  •  

L’imprimante 3D Anycubic Kobra 3 V2 Combo en promo à 335€

La Kobra 3 V2 Combo d’Anycubic reprend les grandes lignes du premier modèle tout en améliorant ses prestations de multiples manières. Cela reste une imprimante 3D à filament classique et c’est l’entrée de gamme de la marque. Pour autant, ce n’est vraiment pas un modèle au rabais.

Pas vraiment prévue dans les calendriers de sorties, la Kobra 3 V2 débarque un peu sans prévenir chez Anycubic. Il faut dire que cette V2 est bien un modèle qui a évolué et pas une véritable nouveauté. Une sorte de correctif de la V1 rendu possible par les évolutions récentes de la marque. On retrouve donc un modèle cartésien classique, ouvert, capable d’imprimer en grand et proposé à un prix très proche de la première en promo.

Parmi les nouveautés, on note un changement de taille d’impression maximale. De 250 x 250 x 260 mm de volume, on passe à 255 x 255 x 260 mm. 5 mm de gagné de chaque côté, c’est peu de chose mais cela permettra sans doute d’imprimer certains groupes d’objets plus confortablement. La machine bascule également sur le nouveau traitement de buse mis en place pour la Kobra S1 sortie après la première Kobra 3 et qui est réputé offrir une meilleure tenue dans la durée.

La V2 embarque par ailleurs une caméra par défaut. Une solution 720P qui apporte à l’imprimante tout le confort d’une vision à distance mais aussi les fonctions de surveillance par IA. Le logiciel Anycubic pouvant détecter un décrochage de votre impression, les erreurs d’impression type « spaghetti » ou autres. Une alerte évite ainsi de gâcher du filament inutilement. Anycubic indique par ailleurs avoir amélioré la précision et la vitesse de l’ensemble et confirme la possibilité de piloter jusqu’à 8 filaments différents. La Kobra 3 V2 peut désormais atteindre les 600 mm/s théoriques. Ce qui permettra des impressions plus rapides à des vitesses plus raisonnables, car si cette fulgurance de laboratoire est rarement exploitable en réalité, mais elle montre des capacités plus élevées en usage normal.

La mise à niveau automatique de la machine est aussi annoncée comme plus efficace et plus rapide. Ce qui évitera les réglages fastidieux avant impression. Le projet des constructeurs d’imprimantes modernes et d’Anycubic ces dernières années étant de ranger au placard les idées qui ont la vie dure sur les difficultés liées à cette pratique de l’impression 3D. Si les premiers modèles sortis étaient clairement très gourmands en réglages et avaient la fâcheuse habitude de consommer beaucoup trop de temps en préparation et en impression, les imprimantes de ces dernières années sont plus automatisées, plus fiables et rapides. Augmentant largement leur efficacité.

L’appellation Kobra 3 V2 Combo vient justement de la présence d’un coffret de stockage de filaments qui va prendre en charge les bobines et les stocker à l’abri de la poussière. Ce dispositif permet de gérer l’hygrométrie des matériaux et ainsi éviter des soucis d’impression. C’est également lui qui va distribuer les différents matériaux. Je ne suis pas spécialement fan de la gestion multicouleurs des impressions, car cela provoque un gâchis énorme de matériau lié à la purge des coloris.

Ici avec deux coffrets en parallèle pour gérer 8 filaments !

Mais avoir « sous la main » différentes couleurs ou différents matériaux sans avoir à changer toute sa bobine, c’est réellement très pratique. Ainsi, je garde toujours un filament de base, peu cher, qui sert pour du prototypage rapide et des filaments plus coûteux qui permettent une impression finale. Bien sûr l’option d’impression mélangeant plusieurs filaments reste possible et la machine est livrée avec de quoi connecter deux boitiers externes pour gérer 8 bobines.

L’imprimante 3D Anycubic Kobra 3 V2 Combo est proposée à 335€ avec 4 Kg de filament offerts grâce au code promo NNNAK3V2 à entrer dans votre panier ! Bien moins que les 499€ d’origine. Elle est stockée en Allemagne et sera livrée en quelques jours gratuitement. Un excellent prix pour un modèle rapide, fiable, efficace et livré avec son coffret de gestion 4 filaments. 

Voir l’offre chez Geekbuying

 j’ai la Kobra 3 V1 combo et la  Anycubic Vyper1 qui tournent chez moi et aucun problème particulier avec ces deux modèles.

Anycubic Kobra 3 Combo : L’impression multi filament à 299€ !

L’imprimante 3D Anycubic Kobra 3 V2 Combo en promo à 335€ © MiniMachines.net. 2025

  •