John Lister

A period of increased risk to communication and the Internet could hit earlier than expected. The dangers of a solar storm are genuine, though one expert says she regrets using the term "Internet apocalypse." The risk is that intense solar activity ... could increase the levels of electromagnetic radiation hitting the Earth's atmosphere. That could damage Internet infrastructure such as undersea cables. The risk increases during a period called "solar maximum" where the sun's magnetic field reverses. During this process, the magnetic field around the sun becomes inconsistent, leading to ... (view more)

A lawyer is suing Microsoft for $1.75 million after being locked out of his email account. David M Schlachter says a bug meant he couldn't verify his identity, making the account useless. According to Schlachter, the problem was with his paid Office ... 365 account. After using it for six years, he was locked out in May by a two-step verification check. The check would send a verification code to his phone, either via a text message or an automated voice call. However, when Schlachter tried to choose one of these options and initiate the check, he'd simply see a message reading "Sorry, we're ... (view more)

Apple and Samsung have both extended their self-repair programs, reducing the need to get devices fixed by the manufacturer or authorized repairers. However, both programs still have significant limitations. The Apple program now covers the iPhone ... 14 and 14 Pro, the MacBook Air (M2, 2022 model) and MacBook Pro 14-inch (2023 model). These are all the latest models of the relevant devices. Meanwhile the iPhone 12 and iPhone 13 Self Service Repair now covers the top speaker and the TrueDepth camera, components which were previously exempt from the program. In each case, users can order official ... (view more)

A supposed scam in which ChatGPT can provide working Windows 10 and 11 product keys is not quite what it seems. Most of the keys it provides will only give limited access to the system. Some reports have implied that ChatGPT is using artificial ... intelligence to figure out a working product key, perhaps in the manner of a safe cracker or somebody working out a user's online password. In reality, the "discovery" was made by a user playing around with ways to defeat ChatGPT's content filters. In most cases somebody asking ChatGPT to provide information that could be used for shady or downright ... (view more)

Phone manufacturers may soon have to offer replaceable batteries in handsets. The rules have been approved by European politicians but could create enough hassle for manufacturers that they follow the measures worldwide. The change, approved ... overwhelmingly by the European Parliament, is part of an overall package to reduce the environmental impact of batteries. Other measures include minimum requirements for the levels of recycled material in new batteries along with the amount of material that can be recovered when the batteries go to waste. The precise wording has yet to be finalized, but ... (view more)

Regulators in Europe have threatened to break-up Google. They say it could be the only way to prevent anti-competitive behavior in the ad market. While Google has been fined eye-watering sums for breaking competition laws in Europe before, they've ... proven a poor deterrent given the company's huge revenues. This time, though, the penalty may be a forcible sale of some of its ad business. The key to the legal problem is that Google is a major player in all three elements of online advertising: businesses buying ads, businesses selling ads, and the technology that brings together buyers and ... (view more)

A senior European official has warned that using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to decide whether to offer a mortgage could lead to discrimination. Margrethe Vestager said this was a more likely risk than dramatic predictions of AI leading to human ... distinction. Vestager is the European Commissioner for Competition. That's a key position as not only is she responsible for competition and antitrust issues across the 27 countries in the European Union, but her work affects businesses around the world that operate in Europe, including tech companies. Talking to the BBC she warned that AI can ... (view more)

Researchers say a feature in a jogging and running app called Strava makes it possible to track down a user's home address. However, they make a pretty weak argument about how plausible and successful an attack would be. Strava lets users track ... their fitness activities, including running routes. Since 2018, the app has included a "heatmap" feature that shows areas where a lot of users are active. The idea is to let people spot well-used running routes that may be useful for their needs. The feature has already been criticized after it revealed routes used by US military personnel on foreign ... (view more)

Google's DeepMind group, whose technology "mastered" the game Go, have turned their attention to computer code. They created an AI tool that taught itself a more efficient way to sort code, something that could mean software runs much faster and ... more smoothly. DeepMind specializes in artificial intelligence (AI) that teaches itself by figuring out approaches and rules. The most famous example was a project to learn the fiendishly complex game Go. Rather than follow tactics created by humans, the software simulated millions of games and worked out its own strategy. It has since consistently ... (view more)

More than 60,000 Android apps contained a nasty piece of malware designed to steal banking information. The scam doesn't target the official Google Play store, but rather third-party sources. The rogue apps fall into two main categories. Some are ... designed to closely resemble real, popular apps. Others are promoted as "modded" versions of genuine apps that are supposedly identical but with an alteration that supposedly removes ads or a requirement to pay a subscription. In reality, the scammers have taken the genuine apps, copied them, and made one modification. Unfortunately that modification ... (view more)