Wrongly discarded lithium batteries, such as those in vapes, are causing more than 10 fires a week at U.K. recycling centers, according to figures shared with the Guardian: The Environment Services Association (ESA), the trade body for waste management companies, said its members had reported 1,518 fires in the year to March 2026. At least 541 of these fires were directly attributed to lithium ion batteries, the survey found. There were a further 216 battery fires in bin lorries [garbage trucks]. The ESA said the reported number of battery-related fires underestimated the scale of the problem, because in most incidents it was impossible to determine the cause of the blaze. A spokesperson said: "We know 40% of fires at recycling centres are caused by batteries, but we think the actual number is more like 70%." It estimates that annual cost of these fires has increased from £150m in 2021 to £1bn today... The ESA is calling for a £5 deposit scheme on the sale of all vapes to ensure that vape users have an incentive to return used devices to retailers for safe disposal... [Patrick Brighty, the head of recycling policy at the ESA, said] "Vapes are among the biggest culprits because they're cheap, abundant and typically have a short use-life." Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader AmiMoJo for sharing the news.

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[Deal du jour] Alors que la Nintendo Switch 2 passera de 469,99 € à 499,99 € le 1er septembre 2026, AliExpress fait tomber la console à 374,28 €. Attention toutefois : il s’agit d’une version britannique, parfaitement utilisable en France, mais livrée avec une prise secteur anglaise.

Apple is overhauling its EU App Store fees to settle its Digital Markets Act dispute, simplifying the fee structure and "[resolving] Apple's disagreements with the Commission over business terms and alternative distribution." Developers can sign the new terms starting today, and the changes go into effect on October 1. MacRumors reports: The initial acquisition fee and store services fee are being removed for apps distributed outside of the App Store, and Apple will now charge a 5% Core Technology Commission on digital purchases that replaces the prior per-install Core Technology Fee. Commission rates are changing for App Store apps, alternative payments, and apps distributed through alternative app marketplaces or the web. Developers can offer in-app purchase options alongside alternative payment options in the EU, which is something Apple did not allow before. Apple says there will be presentation requirements so users have a consistent, transparent experience. Developers distributing apps in the EU must select their payment options and maintain those options for 12 months before making changes to "provide consistency and clarity for users." Apple will still use a Notarization process for apps downloadable through the web and through alternative app marketplaces. Apps in the Kids category or being used by children under 13 will not include links to websites to complete transactions. All apps that use alternative payment processing or link to a website for transactions have to include a parental gate if the user is under 18. Apple is relaxing the rules for operating an alternative app marketplace.

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À l'occasion d'une interview accordée au Wall Street Journal, Hiroko Totoki, CEO de Sony, a révélé que la crise des composants avait logiquement un impact significatif sur ses activités. Le business PlayStation, particulièrement, est touché.

[Deal du jour] Nintendo a confirmé que le prix de la Switch 2 passera de 469,99 € à 499,99 € le 1ᵉʳ septembre 2026. Sur Aliexpress, un code promo fait descendre la console à 367,79 €, soit plus de 100 € d'économies par rapport au tarif actuel, et 130 € à son futur prix.

[Deal du jour] La mini borne d'arcade Subsonic, compatible Nintendo Switch, Switch OLED et Switch 2, permet de transformer la console en un appareil résolument rétro, et pour une quarantaine d'euros seulement en promotion.

Une fuite massivement partagée sur le web montre des photos d'une possible Nintendo Switch 2 collector. Ce serait la toute première, et elle se mettrait aux couleurs de The Legend of Zelda.

The new GNOME Boxes app for accessing virtual systems has reached beta, announced This Week in GNOME. There's also been more work on the Sushi file previewer for Nautilus, and Papers 51 Beta can now add visual signatures to PDF documents. But Phoronix noted one more announcement. "Germany's Sovereign Tech Agency announced earlier this year a new fellowship program and now as part of that, for the next two years GNOME has a fellow dedicated to working on design and community management... paid to help developers with design feedback and reviews, mock-up creation, and other GNOME design related efforts..." From the blog post by GNOME Design Team member Philipp Sauberzweig: I have been contributing to GNOME design as a volunteer for several years... I believe that it's essential for a free and democratic society to ensure free and independent access to these technologies. To achieve this goal, end-user devices based on free and open-source software are key, and the GNOME desktop and its app ecosystem offer a powerful alternative to proprietary platforms... This two-year fellowship is a great honor and marks a significant change in my life. It is a unique opportunity for me to devote my skills and experience entirely to a project I strongly believe in. During my two-year fellowship, I will support GNOME maintainers and developers with design feedback and reviews, create mockups, and coordinate efforts to standardize design patterns. My other activities focus on lasting improvements through two strategic initiatives: expanding the design community to increase capacity and enhancing our design tooling to reduce overhead and simplify onboarding... To attract new contributors, I will increase the visibility of design work by writing regular blog posts, giving presentations, and running workshops at conferences and hackathons. New contribution opportunities for newcomers will be created with clear instructions for independent activities such as collecting state-of-the-art examples, running accessibility and user tests, and creating mockups. Design reviews will be used as mentorship opportunities, pairing regular design contributors with experienced designers for peer review and knowledge sharing... If you're interested in contributing to GNOME design, check out the Design Team page on the Welcome to GNOME website, familiarize yourself with the Human Interface Guidelines, and join our Matrix channel. If you're a GNOME developer feel free to reach out to me via Matrix and involve me in design reviews. Jakub Beránek from the Rust compiler and infrastructure team also earned a fellowship in Germany's Sovereign Tech program, focusing on improving the Rust toolchain's tooling and infrastructure for Rust's developers. Other fellows include Pablo Neira Ayuso (Linux kernel maintainer for the Netfilter subsystem), CPython core developer Stan Ulbrych, and Python core developer Hugo van Kemenade, FreeBSD contributor Alexander Ziaee.

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Alors que l’avenir des supports physiques s’annonce compliqué, notamment après l’annonce de Sony de mettre fin à la production de disques physiques d’ici janvier 2028, Capcom ne semble pas particulièrement inquiet.

Xbox va enfin mettre à jour son système de succès avec une fonctionnalité réclamée depuis longtemps. C'est la nouvelle PDG, Asha Sharma, qui l'annonce, sans toutefois préciser quand.

Sony commence à poser une note d'information sur la fin des disques PlayStation sur les boîtes de PS5. Si certains espéraient encore un rétropédalage, il va falloir se faire une raison.

[Deal du jour] Besoin d'une manette pas chère pour jouer sur Switch 2 ? Ce modèle de PowerA est parfaitement recommandable à ce prix.

Le 1er août 2026 a rimé avec une forte hausse des consoles Xbox Series X et Xbox Series S. L'occasion de découvrir qu'en France une Xbox Series X coûte désormais au minimum 750 €.

Long-time Slashdot reader Qbertino writes: The northern German City of Hamburg is currently in the process of replacing one of its bridges in one single gigantic piece. The new replacement weighs 3700 metric tons and was carefully moved into place over a stretch of 500 meters, requiring extreme patience and precision maneuvering. Some places leave only 40 cm of room to neighbouring buildings.

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[Deal du jour] Alors que le Steam Deck est régulièrement en rupture en raison de la crise de la RAM, certaines consoles concurrentes sont toujours trouvables, et parfois en promotion. La Lenovo Legion Go S passe sous la barre des 500 €.

Sur la grille de combat, choisissez une des 4 lignes pour vous y déplacer. Vous tomberez alors aléatoirement sur une des 4 cases de cette ligne : un monstre qui vous fait du mal ? Un coffre rempli d’or ? Ou bien un piège empoisonné ? Tout peut arriver…

Bon Plan : Jeu Sol Cesto offert sur Epic © MiniMachines.net. 2026

La situation en Gironde est toujours scrutée de près. Plusieurs jours après le début de l'incendie qui s'est déclenché à Saumos, le feu est toujours stabilisé ce matin du 29 juillet 2026. 42 000 hectares ont été brûlés. Une surface immense, qui peut être difficile à imaginer.

Alors que Sony ne commente toujours pas sa récente décision de supprimer les disques PlayStation d’ici 2028, la branche Sony Electronics vient, de son côté, de faire l’éloge des disques vinyles et du plaisir d’écouter sa musique sur un support physique.

La situation en Gironde et dans les Landes peut rapidement évoluer. Pour suivre en temps réel les incendies qui parcourent la zone, le site RecordPy vient d'ajouter une carte mise à jour toutes les 10 minutes. Cet outil permet de voir en direct la présence du feu, mais aussi la température ou l'humidité.

Thousands of Germans have been threatened with fines or prison sentences for social media posts, reports The Telegraph, calling the country's political speech laws "unusually stringent for an EU member state." One German had his home raided for calling a minister a "Schwachkopf [dummy]" while another was fined €2,000 (£1,700) for calling Friedrich Merz a "lying Fritz" under a law that, critics claim, makes it effectively illegal to make fun of politicians. The number of investigations under Section 86a, the Nazi symbols ban... has more than doubled over the past decade according to official police statistics. Investigations into the "political insult" law also reached record levels in 2025. The surge in cases is so vast that the UN has launched an investigation into free speech violations in Germany, a step typically reserved for dictatorships and banana republics... In one recent case, a pensioner was investigated under Section 188 for posting "Pinocchio is coming" on Facebook, after he learnt Friedrich Merz, the chancellor, was visiting his hometown... The case was dropped after the story caused an outcry in Germany, and police have since clarified that calling the chancellor Pinocchio is not a crime... In November 2024, police in Bavaria raided the home of another pensioner because he called Robert Habeck, the then vice-chancellor of Germany, a "schwachkopf", or dummy. The raid was reportedly launched after Mr Habeck personally filed a criminal complaint against the pensioner. Prosecutors eventually dropped the investigation after deciding that the insult "dummy" was not of "sufficient weight" to merit criminal charges. While such cases might seem like bizarre outliers, there are plenty of others. In 2021, police raided a man's apartment in Hamburg after he told a senator "you're such a d---," and this year a resident was fined €2,000 for calling Mr Merz a "lying Fritz". Official figures show a record 4,792 Section 188 cases were filed in Germany in 2025, with the numbers rising by nearly 85 per cent between 2023 and 2025. The article notes both left- and right-leaning free speech activists in Germany are calling for some of the stricter laws to be scrapped. And it adds that the uproar "bears some similarities to the free speech debate in Britain, where citizens have had a knock on the door from police over opinions posted online."

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