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Winamp, through its Belgian owner Llama Group, posted the source for its "Legacy Player Code" on September 24 so that developers could "contribute their expertise, ideas, and passion to help this iconic software evolve."

Less than a month later, that repository has been entirely deleted, after it either bumped up against or broke its strange hodgepodge of code licenses, seemingly revealed the source code for other non-open software packages, and made a pretty bad impression on the open-source community.

Elon Musk’s X won’t be regulated under the European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) the Commission decided Wednesday, despite the social media platform hitting usage thresholds earlier this year.

The decision means X won’t be subject to the DMA’s list of operational ‘dos and don’ts’ — in areas like its use of third party data and user consent to tracking ads — for the foreseeable future. The pan-EU regime targets Big Tech with up-front rules that are generally aimed at ensuring fairer dealing with individual and business users (so far seven companies have been designated as DMA gatekeepers for a total of two dozen “core platform services”, including other social media giants like Meta and TikTok).

The new rule, which will go into effect six months after its published, will make it easier for consumers to cancel their enrollment in subscription plans. It will require retailers and anyone else selling products to get consent for subscriptions, auto-renewal plans, and free trials that automatically become paid memberships after a period.

And, most importantly, the rule will require business make it “at least as easy” to cancel a subscription as it was to sign up. That means if a consumer signs up for a subscription to a streaming service online, they must also be allowed to cancel that plan on that same website.

The Federal Communications Commission is officially looking into broadband data caps and their impact on consumers. On Tuesday, the FCC approved a notice of inquiry to examine whether data caps harm consumers and competition, as well as why data caps persist “despite increased broadband needs” and the “technical ability to offer unlimited data plans,” as spotted earlier by Engadget.

Many internet plans come with a data cap that limits how much bandwidth you can use each month. If you go over the data cap, internet service providers will typically charge an extra fee or slow down your service. The FCC first started inviting consumers to comment on broadband data caps last June, hundreds of which you can now read on th

The New York Times NYT -0.98%decrease; red down pointing triangle is picking another fight in the AI world.

The publisher has sent generative-AI startup Perplexity a “cease and desist” notice demanding that the firm stop accessing and using its content, according to a copy of the letter reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

The Times is already taking on another AI firm, ChatGPT creator OpenAI, with a lawsuit that is pending. It joins other publishers, including Forbes and Condé Nast, that have accused Perplexity of using their material without permission to generate AI search results.

Android 15 is now rolling out to Pixel devices, bringing them new privacy features, security tools, and improvements for foldables and tablets. The operating system first launched last month through the Android Open Source Project, but at the time, it wasn’t yet available on Pixel phones and tablets — or other major Android devices. Google announced today that it’s finally coming to Pixels alongside a series of Pixel feature drops.

One major new feature in Android 15 is the ability to make a “private space” for apps you might want to keep hidden from other people who get ahold of your phone. (Google gives the examples of social, dating, or banking apps.) Apps you put in the private space won’t show up in your recent apps, notifications, or settings, according to Google. To access the space, you’ll have to provide additional authentication, and you can even “hide the existence of private space from view on your phone,” Google says.

Former President Donald J. Trump, whose administration sued Google over allegations it violated antitrust law, indicated that he might not break up the company if he regained the presidency, describing it as a bulwark against China’s technology ambitions.

“China is afraid of Google,” Mr. Trump said while speaking on Tuesday at an event with Bloomberg News during a meeting of the Economic Club of Chicago. He questioned whether a corporate split might “destroy the company,” though he added that he was not a fan of Google.

“What you can do without breaking it up is make sure it’s more fair,” Mr. Trump said.

In a rare public-facing display of cooperation between two of the industry's fiercest rivals, Intel and AMD jointly announced the formation of a new x86 advisory group to ensure a unified x86 instruction set architecture (ISA) moving forward, an important consideration given both the potential addition of new features and the various x86 simplification efforts already underway.

The companies announced the new x86 ecosystem advisory group at the 2024 OCP Summit. It already has several notable industry software and hardware stalwarts as participants, including Google, Broadcom, Dell, HP, Lenovo, Microsoft, Meta, Oracle, and Red Hat, with more to come in the future.

In terms of industrial design, the iPad mini appears almost identical to the prior model. However, it does features some new colorways including blue and purple.

One new design change is a magnetic charging region on the side of the tablet to support the Apple Pencil Pro. That allows the Mini to wirelessly pair and charge the Apple Pencil Pro. iPad mini is also compatible with Apple Pencil (USB-C), by plugging a cable into the USB-C port.

Google said Monday that it will purchase power from small modular reactor developer Kairos Power, as tech companies increasingly turn to nuclear power as a way to fulfill the growing energy demands from data centers.

The tech giant said it will purchase power from a fleet of SMRs made by Kairos Power. Google said purchasing from multiple SMRs sends an “important demand signal to the market,” while making a long-term investment to accelerate commercialization.

Casio says it will learn who you are and attempt to develop a simulated bond expressed through unique sounds and movements.

Originally developed through a collaboration with a Japanese startup called Vanguard Industries, Moflin is now being manufactured and distributed by Casio. It can be preordered for ￥59,400 (around $398 USD) and is expected to be available starting on November 7th. Casio is also offering an optional subscription service called Club Moflin for ￥6,600 (about $44 USD) per year, which gets you a discount on repairs, cleanings, and even a complete fur replacement. Accidents happen.

The Microsoft team that's been working on IVAS has been whittled down, with the majority of the business and engineering brainpower moving on to other projects, the people said. They asked not to be identified discussing private matters.

The company is no longer investing in major innovative improvements to the IVAS device and is instead focusing on smaller, iterative updates requested by the military. It's also having the military pay for these updates, according to the people familiar.

One of the people said the changes signal the "death knell" for Microsoft's involvement in IVAS.

"We will continue to invest in mixed reality opportunities with first-party software solutions and services, partnering with the broader mobile phone and mixed reality hardware ecosystem," a Microsoft spokesperson said. "In addition, we remain fully committed to the IVAS program with the US Department of Defense."

Internet Archive's "The Wayback Machine" has suffered a data breach after a threat actor compromised the website and stole a user authentication database containing 31 million unique records.

News of the breach began circulating Wednesday afternoon after visitors to archive.org began seeing a JavaScript alert created by the hacker, stating that the Internet Archive was breached.

"Have you ever felt like the Internet Archive runs on sticks and is constantly on the verge of suffering a catastrophic security breach? It just happened. See 31 million of you on HIBP!," reads a JavaScript alert shown on the compromised archive.org site.

That means Apple has an opening. One of the first big steps will be releasing a new smart display — something people can use to play TV+ streaming content, do FaceTime calls, surf the web, and access apps like Calendar and Notes. It would be an affordable iPad-like screen, and consumers could place multiple units around the house, like they might with a HomePod mini.

The tabletop device, which is expected to come later, would be on the pricier side — perhaps around $1,000 — and focus on home security monitoring, advanced videoconferencing, and media playback with high-quality audio. The screen would be positioned atop a swiveling robotic limb, helping it stand out from competitors’ products.

Apple Inc.’s Dan Riccio, who oversaw the company’s push into mixed-reality headsets and previously served as its hardware engineering chief, is retiring.

The veteran executive, a vice president who reports to Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook, is leaving Apple this month, according to people with knowledge of the move. Employees in Riccio’s Vision Products Group, which includes a couple thousand engineers working on headsets and related technology, were told they would become the responsibility of John Ternus, Apple’s hardware boss.

Once this treaty is signed, the British Indian Ocean Territory will cease to exist. Various international bodies will update their records. In particular, the International Standard for Organization (ISO) will remove country code “IO” from its specification. The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), which creates and delegates top-level domains, uses this specification to determine which top-level country domains should exist. Once IO is removed, the IANA will refuse to allow any new registrations with a .io domain. It will also automatically begin the process of retiring existing ones. (There is no official count of the number of extant .io domains.)

Officially, .io—and countless websites—will disappear. At a time when domains can go for millions of dollars, it’s a shocking reminder that there are forces outside of the internet that still affect our digital lives.