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      FCC threatens EchoStar licenses for spectrum that SpaceX wants to use

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Tuesday, 13 May - 18:15

    Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr has threatened to revoke EchoStar licenses for radio frequency bands coveted by rival firms including SpaceX, which alleges that EchoStar is underutilizing the spectrum.

    "I have directed agency staff to begin a review of EchoStar's compliance with its federal obligations to provide 5G service throughout the United States per the terms of its federal spectrum licenses," Carr wrote in a May 9 letter to EchoStar Chairman Charles Ergen. EchoStar and its affiliates "hold a large number of FCC spectrum licenses that cover a significant amount of spectrum," the letter said.

    Ergen defended his company's wireless deployment but informed investors that EchoStar "cannot predict with any degree of certainty the outcome" of the FCC proceedings. The letter from Carr and Ergen's statement is included in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing submitted by EchoStar today. EchoStar's stock price was down about 8 percent in trading today.

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      Microsoft extends Office support on Windows 10 through 2028

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Tuesday, 13 May - 15:24 · 1 minute

    For most users, Windows 10 will stop receiving security updates and other official support from Microsoft on October 14, 2025, about five months from today. Until recently, Microsoft had also said that users running the Microsoft Office apps on Windows 10 would also lose support on that date, whether they were using the continually updated Microsoft 365 versions of those apps or the buy-once-own-forever versions included in Office 2021 or Office 2024.

    Microsoft has recently tweaked this policy, however (as seen by The Verge ). Now, Windows 10 users of the Microsoft 365 apps will still be eligible to receive software updates and support through October of 2028 , "in the interest of maintaining your security while you upgrade to Windows 11." Microsoft is taking a similar approach to Windows Defender malware definitions, which will be offered to Windows 10 users " through at least October 2028 ."

    The policy is a change from a few months ago, when Microsoft insisted that Office apps running on Windows 10 would become officially unsupported on October 14. The perpetually licensed versions of Office will be supported in accordance with Microsoft's "Fixed Lifecycle Policy," which guarantees support and security updates for a fixed number of years after a software product's initial release. For Office 2021, this means Windows 10 users will get support through October of 2026; for Office 2024, this should extend to October of 2029.

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      Samsung reveals the super-slim Galaxy S25 Edge with a laughably small battery

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Tuesday, 13 May - 15:14 · 1 minute

    Samsung released its Galaxy S25 series earlier this year to generally favorable reviews. It also teased the perplexingly thin S25 Edge, and now that phone is a reality. You can preorder Samsung's thinnest smartphone-ever today, but you should know what you're getting into. This $1,099 smartphone is incredibly slim, at just 5.8 mm, but it also steps down in the camera department and packs an anemic battery that may struggle to last all day.

    This is a big, flat phone featuring a 120 Hz 6.7-inch OLED at 1440×3120. Like the S25 Ultra, it has a titanium frame with Gorilla Glass Victus 2 on the back. The front has Gorilla Glass Ceramic 2 for improved scratch protection. There's almost no bezel around the display—in fact, there's almost no phone around the display. The body is only 5.8 mm thick, a substantial reduction from the similarly sized S25+ at 7.3 mm. That's really this phone's claim to fame: It's really thin. Everything else (and we do mean everything) is secondary to that.

    Cramming premium camera modules into a smartphone is an engineering challenge even when you're not trying to make the phone as slim as possible. Similar to foldables, there just isn't enough space in the S25 Edge for a full suite of Samsung cameras. Therefore, this phone only has two rear camera modules: a 200 MP primary shooter that appears identical to the S25 Ultra's and a meager 12 MP ultrawide. There's a 12 MP selfie camera on the front as well. There is no telephoto lens at all, which you get even on the base model S25.

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      GOP sneaks decade-long AI regulation ban into spending bill

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Tuesday, 13 May - 14:58 · 1 minute

    On Sunday night, House Republicans added language to the Budget Reconciliation bill that would block all state and local governments from regulating AI for 10 years, 404 Media reports. The provision, introduced by Representative Brett Guthrie of Kentucky, states that "no State or political subdivision thereof may enforce any law or regulation regulating artificial intelligence models, artificial intelligence systems, or automated decision systems during the 10 year period beginning on the date of the enactment of this Act."

    The broad wording of the proposal would prevent states from enforcing both existing and proposed laws designed to protect citizens from AI systems. For example, California's recent law requiring health care providers to disclose when they use generative AI to communicate with patients would potentially become unenforceable. New York's 2021 law mandating bias audits for AI tools used in hiring decisions would also be affected, 404 Media notes. The measure would also halt legislation set to take effect in 2026 in California that requires AI developers to publicly document the data used to train their models.

    The ban could also restrict how states allocate federal funding for AI programs. States currently control how they use federal dollars and can direct funding toward AI initiatives that may conflict with the administration's technology priorities. The Education Department's AI programs represent one example where states might pursue different approaches than those favored by the White House and its tech industry allies.

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      Copyright Office head fired after reporting AI training isn’t always fair use

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Monday, 12 May - 19:37

    A day after the US Copyright Office dropped a bombshell pre-publication report challenging artificial intelligence firms' argument that all AI training should be considered fair use, the Trump administration fired the head of the Copyright Office, Shira Perlmutter—sparking speculation that the controversial report hastened her removal.

    Tensions have apparently only escalated since. Now, as industry advocates decry the report as overstepping the office's authority, social media posts on Monday described an apparent standoff at the Copyright Office between Capitol Police and men rumored to be with Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

    A source familiar with the matter told Wired that the men were actually "Brian Nieves, who claimed he was the new deputy librarian, and Paul Perkins, who said he was the new acting director of the Copyright Office, as well as acting Registrar," but it remains "unclear whether the men accurately identified themselves." A spokesperson for the Capitol Police told Wired that no one was escorted off the premises or denied entry to the office.

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      New pope chose his name based on AI’s threats to “human dignity”

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Monday, 12 May - 17:04

    Last Thursday, white smoke emerged from a chimney at the Sistine Chapel, signaling that cardinals had elected a new pope . That's a rare event in itself, but one of the many unprecedented aspects of the election of Chicago-born Robert Prevost as Pope Leo XIV is one of the main reasons he chose his papal name: artificial intelligence.

    On Saturday, the new pope gave his first address to the College of Cardinals, explaining his name choice as a continuation of Pope Francis' concerns about technological transformation.

    "Sensing myself called to continue in this same path, I chose to take the name Leo XIV," he said during the address. "There are different reasons for this, but mainly because Pope Leo XIII in his historic Encyclical Rerum Novarum addressed the social question in the context of the first great industrial revolution."

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      Germ-theory skeptic RFK Jr. goes swimming in sewage-tainted water

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Monday, 12 May - 16:27

    When you don’t believe in germ theory , the world is your oyster—or maybe your bathtub.

    Over the weekend, America's top health official, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., shared pictures on social media of himself fully submerged in the sewage-tinged waters of Rock Creek in Washington, DC. His grandchildren were also pictured playing in the water.

    The creek is known for having a sewage overflow problem and posing a health hazard to any who enter it. The National Park Service, which manages the Rock Creek Park, strictly bars all swimming and wading in Rock Creek and the park's other waterways due to the contamination, specifically "high levels of bacteria."

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      US and China pause tariffs for 90 days as Trump claims “historic trade win”

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Monday, 12 May - 15:38

    The US and China agreed to lower tariffs by 115 percent for 90 days while they continue talks on a longer-term agreement, sending stocks soaring on hopes that President Trump's trade war won't be as damaging to the two economies as previously feared.

    "As part of a deal hammered out in Geneva over the weekend, the US will lower additional tariffs on Chinese goods to 30 percent from 145 percent and China will reduce duties on US imports to 10 percent from 125 percent. China said it would also 'suspend or cancel' non-tariff measures taken against the US," the Financial Times wrote .

    Trump recently appeared eager to make a deal , while China seemed content to wait for better terms. The White House today called the temporary deal "a historic trade win for the United States" that "demonstrat[es] President Trump's unparalleled expertise in securing deals that benefit the American people."

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      Nintendo threatens to brick Switch consoles for hacking, piracy

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Monday, 12 May - 15:08

    Switch and Switch 2 users who try to hack their consoles or play pirated copies of games may find their devices rendered completely inoperable by Nintendo. That new warning was buried in a recent update to the Nintendo User Account Agreement, as first noticed by Game File last week .

    Nintendo's May 2025 EULA update adds new language concerning the specific ways users are allowed to use "Nintendo Account Services" on the console, a term defined here to encompass the use of "video games and add-on content." Under the new EULA, any unlicensed use of the system not authorized by Nintendo could lead the company to "render the Nintendo Account Services and/or the applicable Nintendo device permanently unusable in whole or in part." (Emphasis added.)

    That language would apply to both the current Switch and the upcoming Switch 2.

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