The Register

Nailed just 15% of assigned tasks A service described as "the first AI software engineer" appears to be rather bad at its job, based on a recent evaluation....

Answers on a postcard to what 'Microcode Signature Verification Vulnerability' might mean AMD has confirmed at least some of its microprocessors suffer a microcode-related security vulnerability, the existence of which accidentally emerged this month after a fix for the flaw appeared in a beta BIOS update from PC maker Asus....

What? Why? Xi wants people spending, so has extended a subsidy scheme to phones, tabs, and smartwatches If you want a cheap iPhone, China's the place to be right now thanks to a government subsidy scheme that means resellers are discounting the devices to make sure Beijing helps to pick up the bill....

Old flaws that keep causing trouble haunt Big Red Oracle has delivered its regular quarterly collection of patches: 603 in total, 318 for its own products, and another 285 for Linux code it ships....

Microsoft's IG-for-suits insists lawsuit's claims are without merit LinkedIn was this week accused of giving third parties access to Premium customers' private InMail messages for AI model training....

Markets smartwatches as health helpers even as they expose some owners to PFAS Apple has been sued for allegedly selling wristbands for its smartwatches that contain high levels of "forever chemicals" known as PFAS that may be linked to harmful health effects in humans....

And: America 'has never been less secure,' retired rear admiral tells Congress The Trump administration gutted key cybersecurity advisory boards in its first days, as expert witnesses warned Congress of potentially destructive cyberattacks by China....

The (good old) boys are back in town US federal government contractors are no longer subject to anti-discrimination rules over hiring, training, and employment - after President Trump reached back 60 years to scrap an equal opportunity order signed by former President Lyndon B. Johnson....

Threat actor exploited phishing and OAuth abuse to inject malicious code Cybersecurity outfit Sekoia is warning Chrome users of a supply chain attack targeting browser extension developers that has potentially impacted hundreds of thousands of individuals already....

Meanwhile, datacenter emissions continue to soar Microsoft is forking out for even more carbon credits to offset spiralling AI-fuelled carbon dioxide emissions from its datacenters....

This year's model adds lots of AI, improved management, and support for biz buyers First fondle Samsung has announced the Galaxy S25, the latest version of its flagship smartphone range, and, as you'd expect, made new AI features the hero....

Learning how to deal with the microorganisms hitching a ride with humans Two NASA astronauts are set to venture outside the International Space Station (ISS) in search of signs of life....

Update addresses boot failures on multi-node systems Microsoft is releasing an out-of-band patch to deal with a problem that prevented some Windows Server 2022 machines from booting....

Ross Ulbricht's family are now appealing for donations to support his reintegration into society Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht is now a free man after US President Donald Trump made good on his promise to issue a federal pardon upon taking office....

But no changes to bcachefs Linux kernel 6.13 is here, but don't get too excited. It's not a biggie and, given the timing, probably won't appear in many familiar distros....

Amazon doesn't break out figures, but then again neither do Microsoft nor Google As more businesses shift an ever greater number of workloads to the cloud, hyperscalers aren't doing enough to help CIOs or tech buyers, who are already under legislative pressure, to be more transparent about their own corporation's carbon footprint regarding compute services....

Everyone agrees defense matters. How to do it is up for debate Feature The Trump administration came to office this week without a detailed information security policy, but analysis of cabinet nominees' public remarks and expert comments suggest it will make significant changes in the field....

Cut off nearly 44k peeps who had been waiting 70 minutes for advice on unavoidable chore The UK tax collector must "take responsibility for its own failings to offer sufficiently effective digital services to customers," according to a committee of MPs which accused HMRC of "deliberately" poor phone service to push callers online....

Interim appointment after former head booted out for not being 'sufficiently focused on growth' The UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has a new chair after the sudden departure of the previous incumbent....

The nascent tech enters Hype Cycle's downward slope, says Gartner Tech analysts have forecast 9.8 percent year-over-year growth in worldwide IT spending in 2025, reaching $5.61 trillion and driven by continuing AI investments, despite moonshot" projects seeing a high failure rate....

That invitation to a Teams call on which IT promises to mop up a spamstorm may not be what it seems Two ransomware campaigns are abusing Microsoft Teams to infect organizations and steal data, and the crooks may have ties to Black Basta and FIN7, according to Sophos....

1,066 seconds of steady-state high-confinement plasma operation and all that China's Hefei Institutes of Physical Science has claimed a new world record for maintaining a steady-state high-confinement plasma operation, a feat needed to create a fusion reactor that in theory will produce vast amounts of energy at little cost....

Nobel Prize winner Demis Hassabis thinks human trials will happen soon Clinical trials of the first drugs designed with the help of artificial intelligence could commence this year, Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis suggested Tuesday....

Plus: Google stuffs Gemini into Workspace, with a hidden off switch? Ready or not, generative AI assistants and productivity aids are getting harder to avoid with a growing number of software vendors enabling them by default....

SoftBank, Oracle, MGX form Stargate Project with ChatGPT maker, intend to outspend Microsoft this year OpenAI, Oracle, SoftBank, and investment firm MGX on Tuesday announced plans to spend $500 billion on AI infrastructure in America over the next four years, to be used by the ChatGPT super-lab....

Lawsuits pile up after database accessed by miscreants Canada's largest school board has revealed that student records dating back to 1985 may have been accessed by miscreants who compromised software provider PowerSchool....

El Reg asked a lawyer to explain WTH is going on Analysis President Trump's executive order stalling the enforcement of the TikTok ban in the United States has created legal uncertainty for companies hosting or distributing the app. To further confuse the matter, it's not even clear that Trump's decree is within his power to issue or enforce....

Same, Big A, same If you were unable to access Atlassian's Bitbucket Cloud today, it's because in the words of the IT giant, the service was "hard down."...

Seven days after disclosure and little action taken, data shows Fortinet customers need to get with the program and apply the latest updates as nearly 50,000 management interfaces are still vulnerable to the latest zero-day exploit....

Also, prepare for paused wind projects and the Gulf of America from Trump 2.0 - and that's just day 1 US President Donald Trump has wasted no time in culling Biden-era programs, including the elimination of the prior administration's executive orders on AI safety and electric vehicles, and freezing funds for EV infrastructure....

Researchers aim to tackle unmet needs for social connection and recreation Scientists in the US have developed a neural interface that enables an individual with paralysis to control a virtual quadcopter by decoding brain activity into distinct finger movements....

So you want to go to the Red Planet. How deep are your pockets and how much time do you have? Comment "America is going to Mars," said Elon Musk at yesterday's inauguration of US President Donald Trump. America is already there, thanks to decades of robotic exploration....

Under Digital Services Act, monitors will be allowed to report abusive language and platforms should respond in 1 day Online platform companies, including X and Meta, have signed up to a new code of conduct aimed at targeting online hate speech, which the European Commission has now baked into the Digital Services Act....

It's a feature not a bug, and what the US electorate voted for, says analyst As US president Donald Trump's inauguration passes into history, tech leaders face uncertainty as they wait to see if repeated promises of global US import tariffs are put into action....

Incident response protocols engaged following claims of source code burglary Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) is probing assertions made by prolific Big Tech intruder IntelBroker that they broke into the US corporation's systems and accessed source code, among other things....

From fighters to friends in six months, despite AWS voting against it Exclusive Microsoft is to become the latest member of CISPE months after negotiating a settlement with the trade association of European cloud providers over alleged anti-competitive software practices. However, not all in the group are happy with the enrollment....

Ring a bell? Suite of tools named after Yes Minister's master of manipulation The UK government is striving to end its checkered record in managing large-scale projects with a "plan to put technology to work across public services."...

Supermarket taking 'pragmatic approach' to 'Europe's largest IT transformation program' Asda has postponed the tech transition of 55 stores to its new systems as US retail giant Walmart continues to support IT at outlets it sold to the new owner in 2021....

Now if only the councils could afford to fill them An oft-repeated myth is that potholes form through a combination of surface cracks, water, and traffic, but they're actually caused by chronic levels of underinvestment in public infrastructure....

And possibly even more so if you don't start planning yours soon If the changes Broadcom brought to VMware have you thinking of a move to an alternative virtualization platform, expect a long, costly, and risky project - and perhaps a longer, costlier, and riskier one if you put off pondering the move....

Geopolitical rumblings one day, geological rumblings the next Taiwan has experienced an earthquake so significant that chipmaking champ TSMC has shuttered plants....

US Digital Service re-named and told to audit government tech and work on data-sharing US President Donald Trump has re-named the US Digital Service the Department of Government Efficiency and given it a mission to modernize government technology....

President Trump allows vid app to keep running for 75 days while he reviews security concerns and develops a policy Updated China appears to have softened its stance on the possible sale of TikTok's US operations and is now perhaps open to the idea....

Semantic indexing does some discreet rifling through local drawers of Insiders Windows Search is improved in the latest Dev Channel Windows Insider build, but you'll need a Snapdragon-powered Copilot+ PC to use it....

Both the Ubuntu and Debian-based editions get Cinnamon 6.4 and other goodies It's a bit later than we were expecting, but the latest Mint is here and should start to be offered as an upgrade soon....

Cloud giant explains its thinking behind support for Apache open table format AWS bet on the Apache Iceberg open table format (OTF) across its analytics, machine learning, and storage stack as a concerted response to demand from customers already using its popular S3 object storage....

Taipei invites infosec bods to come and play on its home turf Picture this: It's 2030 and China's furious with Taiwan after the island applies to the UN to be recognized as an independent state. After deciding on a full military invasion, China attempts to first cripple its rebellious neighbor's critical infrastructure....

Ready or not, here I come Microsoft has begun distributing Windows 11 24H2 to user devices as the company enters the next stage of the operating system's rollout....

Only one called exploding a rocket over the Caribbean 'entertainment' SpaceX is not the only company involved in a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) mishap inquiry. Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin has also come under scrutiny after losing its New Glenn rocket's first stage....

Crypto critics unhappy as BTC hits all-time high and Melania launches her own currency Donald Trump, US president again by the time many of you read this, launched his own cryptocurrency -$TRUMP - on the Solana blockchain network on Friday night. By the weekend, it had hit a market cap of nearly $15 billion, although by Sunday, that value dropped when First Lady Melania Trump launched her own meme coin....