Webtagr - Technology News Summarizer

OpenAI Launches AI Certification and Job Board to Combat Job Displacement

2025-09-05

OpenAI is tackling the job displacement caused by AI with a two-pronged approach: an AI skills certification program and a new job board. Fidji Simo, OpenAI's head of applications, argues that AI will reshape the job market, and OpenAI aims to help individuals acquire necessary AI skills and connect them with companies. Partnerships with companies like Walmart are underway, offering AI training. However, potential competition with Microsoft and the real-world value of the certification remain open questions.

(www.theregister.com)

Tech skills training

Nepal Shuts Down Facebook, X, YouTube Over Registration Failure

2025-09-05

Nepal's government has blocked major social media platforms, including Facebook, X, and YouTube, for failing to meet registration requirements. The move, aimed at curbing online hate speech, rumors, and cybercrime, followed a deadline for companies to register with the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology. While the government claims sufficient time was given, companies like Meta and Alphabet did not comply, leading to the shutdown. Critics argue this action infringes on fundamental rights and that legal infrastructure should be established before such drastic measures are taken.

(www.aljazeera.com)

Tech social media regulation

The Diffusion Deficit: Why Transformative Tech Takes So Long

2025-09-05

This article explores the often-unexpectedly slow diffusion of transformative technologies, using the tractor as a prime example. It argues that technological success depends not only on inherent superiority but also on compatibility with existing social, economic, and industrial systems. The article examines cases like the telephone, electric motor, and IT, highlighting the need for complementary innovations, skills training, and industrial reorganization to unlock a technology's full potential. The current AI field faces similar challenges, with excessive focus on AGI overshadowing product development and practical application. Ultimately, technological success hinges on understanding and strategizing for diffusion—this is where the true 'technological dividend' lies.

(arenamag.com)

Tech technology diffusion

SAP's €20B Bet: A Sovereign Cloud to Challenge US Giants in Europe

2025-09-05

SAP is investing €20 billion over the next decade to expand its sovereign cloud infrastructure in Europe, positioning itself as a secure and compliant alternative to American cloud giants. This initiative focuses on providing sovereign infrastructure for public sector and regulated environments, offering three options: SAP Cloud Infrastructure (IaaS), Sovereign Cloud On-Site, and Delos Cloud in Germany. While the CEO previously cautioned against directly competing with US hyperscalers in infrastructure, this investment prioritizes integrating sovereignty into the technology stack, not replicating global infrastructure. The strategy emphasizes boosting Europe's competitiveness through software, AI, and applied innovation.

(www.theregister.com)

Tech sovereign cloud

My Used 2023 Nissan Leaf: A Budget EV Experience

2025-09-05

In 2025, the author bought a used 2023 Nissan Leaf, his first 'new' car in 15 years. The article details his decision-making process, weighing the Leaf's affordability and practicality against competitors like Tesla. He highlights the Leaf's advantages, such as one-pedal driving, peppy torque, and lower maintenance, but also its drawbacks: inconsistent charging infrastructure, lack of standardization, and some design quirks. Ultimately, the author finds the Leaf suitable for his short-commute needs, but concludes that EVs still face significant price and infrastructure barriers for most car owners.

(www.jeffgeerling.com)

Tech Nissan Leaf Used Car

AI Boosts Gravitational Wave Detection: Deep Loop Shaping Breakthrough

2025-09-05

Scientists have used a deep learning technique called Deep Loop Shaping to significantly improve the control precision of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), reducing noise by up to 100 times. This technology, using reinforcement learning, optimizes LIGO's feedback control system, enabling it to measure gravitational waves more stably. This helps astronomers delve deeper into the dynamics and formation of the universe, such as detecting more intermediate-mass black holes and studying neutron star collisions in greater detail. This breakthrough is expected to influence the design of future gravitational wave observatories and further expand our understanding of the cosmos.

(deepmind.google)

Tech Gravitational Waves

Ultra-Processed Foods: Health Risks and Policy Challenges

2025-09-05

The UN is set to discuss a proposal to eliminate trans fats, but experts urge clarification between industrially produced and naturally occurring trans fats to avoid harming nutritious foods. This sparks a broader debate on "ultra-processed foods," often high in sugar, salt, and saturated fat, linked to obesity and cardiovascular disease. While the NOVA classification system helps identify them, its limitations lie in focusing solely on processing, ignoring factors like palatability and calorie density. Therefore, clearer definitions and more precise policies are needed, balancing control over excessive industrial food production with ensuring sufficient and appropriate food for all.

(www.nature.com)

Tech trans fats

Nepal Blocks Facebook, X, and YouTube Over Registration Failure

2025-09-05

Nepal's government has blocked major social media platforms, including Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), and YouTube, for failing to comply with registration regulations. The government claims repeated notices were ignored. While some platforms like TikTok and Viber, having registered, remain operational, the move has sparked concerns over freedom of speech and accusations that the accompanying bill is a tool for censorship and suppressing dissent.

(apnews.com)

Tech Nepal

First Whole-Brain Map of Decision-Making in Mammals Achieved

2025-09-05

The International Brain Laboratory (IBL) has created the first whole-brain map of decision-making in mammals, a groundbreaking achievement in neuroscience. Researchers trained mice to manipulate a virtual steering wheel to move shapes on a screen, simultaneously recording the activity of over 600,000 neurons across 279 brain regions in 139 mice. The results reveal that decision-making is not confined to specific brain regions, but is distributed throughout the entire brain, including areas previously thought to be solely involved in movement. This research provides a valuable data resource for understanding the brain's complex workings and demonstrates the potential of large-scale international collaborations in neuroscience.

(www.eurekalert.org)

Tech Whole-Brain Mapping

Amazon's Kuiper to Power JetBlue In-Flight Wi-Fi Starting in 2027

2025-09-05

Amazon's Project Kuiper, its satellite internet service, has partnered with JetBlue to provide in-flight Wi-Fi starting in 2027. This marks Kuiper's first airline deal, aiming to compete with SpaceX's Starlink, which already boasts agreements with several major airlines. While Kuiper launched its first satellites in April and now has over 100 in orbit, it's still playing catch-up to Starlink's 8,000+ satellite constellation. Amazon showcased impressive gigabit download speeds using an enterprise-grade terminal, but real-world consumer performance remains to be seen. Initial customer access begins this year, with a wider rollout slated for 2026.

(www.theverge.com)

Tech In-flight Wi-Fi

Global ACM-ICPC Rankings: Tsinghua and Peking Universities Shine

2025-09-05

The 2023 ACM-ICPC International Collegiate Programming Contest global rankings are out, with St. Petersburg State University taking the top spot. Notably, Tsinghua University and Peking University secured the fourth and fifth places respectively, showcasing the strong performance of Chinese universities in computer science. The ranking includes many prestigious universities from China, the US, Japan, and Europe, highlighting the fierce competition. This top-tier global event not only tests the programming skills of contestants but also reflects the differences in computer science talent cultivation across various countries and regions.

(worldfinals.icpc.global)

Tech programming contest university rankings

Wikipedia: Fighting for Facts in an Age of Information Warfare

2025-09-05

Wikipedia, the world's largest knowledge base, faces unprecedented challenges from governments, political forces, and individuals like Elon Musk. From the handling of a Nazi salute controversy involving Musk to government interference and harassment of editors worldwide, this article reveals how Wikipedia's unique consensus mechanism and rigorous editing process safeguard factual integrity in a digital world awash in misinformation. Despite immense pressure, Wikipedia and its editors strive to maintain neutrality and reliability, a battle crucial for both the free flow of information and the health of democratic societies.

(www.theverge.com)

Tech

WiFi-Based Heart Rate Monitoring Achieves Clinical-Grade Accuracy with Low-Cost Hardware

2025-09-05

Researchers at UC Santa Cruz have developed Pulse-Fi, a system using inexpensive WiFi devices and machine learning to accurately measure heart rate. This non-wearable technology achieves clinical-grade accuracy by analyzing subtle variations in WiFi signals caused by heartbeats. Testing with ESP32 chips (costing only $5-10) demonstrated accurate readings even from three meters away and across various body positions. Pulse-Fi promises a cost-effective solution for health monitoring, particularly in low-resource settings.

(news.ucsc.edu)

Tech Heart Rate Monitoring

Fourier Transform: A Mathematical Revolution

2025-09-05

This article recounts the discovery of the Fourier transform and its profound impact. In the early 19th century, French mathematician Joseph Fourier discovered a way to decompose any function into a set of fundamental waves – the Fourier transform. This not only sparked a mathematical revolution but also deeply influenced fields like physics and chemistry. From compressing files to enhancing audio signals, from studying tides to detecting gravitational waves, the Fourier transform is ubiquitous, even playing a crucial role in quantum mechanics. Its core idea is to decompose complex functions into simple sine and cosine waves, thereby simplifying problems; this is like breaking down a symphony into the sounds of individual instruments.

(www.quantamagazine.org)

Tech Fourier Transform

Flock Safety's Nationwide Surveillance Network: A Privacy Nightmare?

2025-09-04

Flock Safety is deploying automatic license plate recognition (ALPR) cameras across the US, creating a massive surveillance network spanning thousands of cities. The system allows private users to create 'hotlists' and cross-references plates against police and FBI databases, raising serious privacy concerns. Its ability to track individuals' movements and widespread use by law enforcement, potentially for political persecution, is alarming. The article urges opposition to this mass surveillance, suggesting legislative action, public engagement, and limitations on data retention, sharing, and database usage to protect civil liberties.

(www.aclu.org)

Tech

India's AI Ambitions: A David vs. Goliath Struggle Against US Tech Giants

2025-09-04

While India boasts ambitions of AI sovereignty, its fledgling domestic AI sector faces a daunting challenge: a massive funding gap, regulatory inconsistencies favoring foreign tech giants, and the unchecked expansion of US tech behemoths. Companies like OpenAI and Perplexity AI are aggressively undercutting Indian startups like Sarvam AI and Ola Krutrim with aggressively low prices, leveraging existing user bases to lock in market share. Bernstein analysts warn of misplaced enthusiasm surrounding the entry of these giants, highlighting a fundamental power imbalance. India's AI development is hampered by insufficient funding (US $471B vs India's $11.29B between 2013-2024), regulatory double standards favoring foreign companies, and a strategic risk of becoming a mere digital marketplace rather than a creator of AI technology. This leaves India's AI aspirations significantly threatened.

(indiadispatch.com)

Tech US Tech Giants

Complex Hydrocarbons Discovered in the Red Rectangle Nebula

2025-09-04

In 2004, scientists discovered hydrocarbons like anthracene and pyrene within the amazing structure known as the Red Rectangle nebula. This nebula, 2300 light-years away, features two stars orbiting each other and emitting a vast torus of icy dust and hydrocarbon molecules. These complex molecules are surprisingly common in space, found in meteorites and even supernova shockwaves. Scientists hypothesize that these polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) were crucial precursors to life on Earth and play a dominant role in the interstellar 'organic chemistry ecology'.

(johncarlosbaez.wordpress.com)

Tech polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons Red Rectangle Nebula interstellar chemistry

Atlassian Acquires AI Browser Startup The Browser Company for $610 Million

2025-09-04

Atlassian, the enterprise software giant, has acquired The Browser Company, the New York-based startup behind the Arc and AI-focused Dia browsers, for $610 million in cash. Atlassian CEO Mike Cannon-Brookes, an early Arc user, was drawn to Dia's innovative blend of web browser and chatbot functionality, enabling cross-app data manipulation. This acquisition strategically positions Atlassian to integrate Dia's capabilities with its existing suite of work applications. The Browser Company CEO, Josh Miller, views the deal as a strategic move to accelerate Dia's growth, secure market share, and avoid potential acquisition by larger tech companies. Dia will remain focused on enterprise users and will not simply become a wrapper for Atlassian apps.

(www.theverge.com)

Tech

Atlassian Acquires Browser Company to Build the AI-Powered Browser for Work

2025-09-04

Atlassian announced the acquisition of The Browser Company, creator of the Dia and Arc browsers. This move aims to combine Atlassian's expertise in team collaboration with The Browser Company's passion for building user-friendly browsers to create Dia, a browser optimized for knowledge workers in the AI era. Dia will be designed to seamlessly integrate with SaaS applications, leverage AI capabilities and personal work memory, and prioritize security and compliance for enterprise use. The goal is to transform how work gets done, moving beyond simple browsing to focused task completion.

(www.atlassian.com)

Tech browser acquisition

Electromechanical Reshaping: A Potential Game Changer in Eye Surgery

2025-09-04

A new technique called electromechanical reshaping (EMR) shows promise as a gentler, cheaper alternative to laser surgery for vision correction. Unlike LASIK, EMR uses small electrical pulses to reshape the cornea without cutting or burning tissue. By disrupting chemical bonds in the collagen, the cornea becomes moldable and can be reshaped using a custom mold. Early tests on rabbits have been successful, demonstrating the potential for a significantly more affordable and accessible method for treating nearsightedness, farsightedness, and astigmatism. Further research is needed to ensure long-term safety and efficacy before clinical trials.

(spectrum.ieee.org)

Tech Eye Surgery LASIK alternative

VW's Budget EV Offensive: ID.Polo Leads the Charge

2025-09-04

Volkswagen is shaking up its EV strategy with a new family of affordable electric vehicles, starting with the ID.Polo. Based on the 2023 ID.2all concept, the €25,000 ($29,000) ID.Polo aims to make electric driving more accessible. Further affordable EVs are planned, including an electric T-Cross (ID.Cross), all part of VW's push for wider EV adoption. A sporty ID.Polo GTI variant is also in the works, launching alongside the standard model next year. The ID.Polo and ID.Polo GTI will debut at the Munich Motor Show on September 8th, with the ID.Cross concept revealed the day before.

(electrek.co)

Tech

Apple's Liquid Glass: Gorgeous Tech Debt?

2025-09-04

Apple's new "Liquid Glass" design language is visually stunning, with its fluid animations and translucent effects. However, this beauty comes at a cost. The author draws parallels to Windows Vista's Aero, arguing that while it performs flawlessly on powerful hardware like the M4 chip, it could lead to performance issues on less powerful devices. Concerns are raised about potential impacts on battery life, thermals, and future compatibility. The conclusion suggests that while visually appealing, Liquid Glass might represent expensive tech debt.

(idiallo.com)

Tech

The Fascinating History of Blue: From Ancient Pigments to Modern Tech

2025-09-04

This article explores the fascinating evolution of blue throughout history, from ancient Egyptian blue to modern Prussian blue and LEDs. The author argues that blue, being a difficult color to create artificially, has long been associated with technology and the future. From ancient natural pigments to modern synthetics and the breakthrough of LED technology, blue consistently represents technological advancement and humanity's conquest of nature. Rich historical details and images showcase blue's unique place in art, technology, and culture.

(www.hopefulmons.com)

Tech color

Google Services Suffer Major Outage Across Eastern Europe

2025-09-04

On September 4th, a widespread outage impacted numerous core Google services across several Eastern European countries, including Bulgaria, Turkey, and Greece, causing significant disruptions to daily life and work. Affected services included YouTube, Google Maps, Google Search, Gmail, and Google Drive, with users reporting failures to load videos, map data, search results, and send/receive emails. While not all Google services were affected, the disruption to core services caused major inconvenience for a large number of users. Initial reports point to a server-side issue at Google, rather than user-side connectivity problems.

(www.novinite.com)

Tech Google outage Eastern Europe

Dolby Vision 2: AI-Powered HDR Gets a Major Upgrade

2025-09-04

Dolby has unveiled Dolby Vision 2, an evolution of its HDR format. Beyond fine-tuning picture settings, Dolby Vision 2 introduces "Content Intelligence," leveraging AI and TV sensors to dynamically adjust brightness, addressing common complaints about overly dark scenes (think *Game of Thrones*' infamous 'Battle of Winterfell'). A new "Authentic Motion" feature aims to optimize motion handling across various viewing environments, though this may prove controversial among purists.

(arstechnica.com)

Tech Dolby Vision

Record-Breaking 11.5 Tbps DDoS Attack Successfully Mitigated

2025-09-04

Over the Labor Day weekend, Cloudflare successfully mitigated a record-breaking 11.5 Tbps distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack lasting approximately 35 seconds and peaking at over 5.1 billion packets per second. The attack leveraged a simple UDP flood, originating from various IoT devices and cloud providers, including compromised Google Cloud accounts. While simple in nature, the scale and frequency of such attacks are rapidly increasing, with Cloudflare blocking over 6,500 similar attacks in Q2 2025. This highlights the importance of modern internet security defenses and serves as a warning for businesses to implement robust DDoS protection.

(www.zdnet.com)

Tech

Tesco Sues Broadcom Over VMware Licensing Dispute, Threatens Supply Chain

2025-09-04

Tesco, a UK supermarket giant, is suing Broadcom for breach of contract regarding its VMware licenses, also naming Computacenter as a co-defendant. Broadcom's refusal to provide support services for perpetually licensed VMware software after its acquisition threatens Tesco's operations and could disrupt grocery supply. Tesco argues Broadcom's subscription model is excessively expensive and prevents necessary software updates. The lawsuit highlights the broader issue of perpetual license support after acquisitions and the potential for significant financial damages. Other companies have filed similar lawsuits against Broadcom.

(www.theregister.com)

Tech Licensing Dispute

Instagram Finally Launches Dedicated iPad App

2025-09-04

After years of user requests, Instagram has finally released a dedicated app for iPads! Launching September 3rd, the app prioritizes Reels, Instagram's TikTok competitor, reflecting the dominance of short-form video. This move, possibly spurred by TikTok's regulatory challenges, solidifies Instagram's short-video strategy. The iPad app retains Stories and a "Following" tab, offering a more familiar experience, but optimized for the larger screen with features like comments directly beside Reels. Meta confirms similar updates are coming soon to Android tablets.

(www.theverge.com)

Tech iPad App

Google's September Pixel Drop: Material 3, Auracast, and AI Enhancements Arrive

2025-09-04

Google's September update brings a wave of new features to Pixel devices. Pixel 6 and later models get Material 3 Expressive, offering lock screen customization, improved contact cards, and a revamped Quick Settings pane. Pixel Buds Pro 2 gains Adaptive Audio, loud noise protection, and head gesture controls. Android now supports Auracast, enabling simultaneous audio playback on two devices or creating public broadcasts. Gboard adds AI writing tools, and the Androidify app lets users create AI-powered Android bot avatars. This update spans interface, audio, and AI improvements for a richer user experience.

(www.engadget.com)

Tech Pixel update

Leaked: Microsoft's 1978 BASIC 1.1 for 6502!

2025-09-04

The source code for Microsoft BASIC 1.1 for the 6502 microprocessor, dating back to 1978, has surfaced! This 6,955-line assembly language program was foundational to the personal computer revolution, powering early machines like the Apple II and Commodore PET. Its release offers a glimpse into Microsoft's early successes, showcasing its cross-platform compatibility and efficient memory management, leaving an indelible mark on the software industry.

(github.com)

Tech 6502 Assembly

Category: Tech