The Register

Installation and pre-approval without consent looks dubious under EU law

One app should not modify another app without asking for and receiving your explicit consent. Yet Anthropic's Claude Desktop for macOS installs files that affect other vendors' applications without disclosure, even before those applications have been installed, and authorizes browser extensions without consent.…

Good news for those working with Windows, bad news for Paragon Software

The feature list for Linux kernel 7.1 is taking shape, and a standout addition has already landed: a new read-write NTFS driver.…

Tyler Buchanan admits role in scheme that stole at least $8 million in virtual currency

A Scottish man linked to the Scattered Spider cybercrime crew has pleaded guilty in the US to a phishing and SIM-swap scheme that stole at least $8 million in cryptocurrency.…

It won't provide much juice, but its creator calls it a 'nanowatt nuclear power plant'

It's illegal and impractical to construct a nuclear power plant in your backyard. But a DIY tritium nuclear battery is far less dramatic - just don't expect any appreciable amount of energy from it.…

Google previews Android CLI as agentic development continues to snowball

Google has introduced a new Android command-line interface built specifically for AI agents, claiming a 70 percent cut in token usage and three times reduction in task completion time.…

We've been here before. This time, we may not get out

Opinion  Fans of the creative arts often find out where creators gather to talk among themselves, then sneak in to eavesdrop on what those masters of the art talk about. Golden insights, daring concepts, cutting-edge thinking? Not a bit. Gossip, if you're lucky. Travel miseries, if you're not. Mostly, they talk about money.…

Out-of-band or out of control?

Microsoft has pushed out an out-of-band update to address the restart loop that hit some Windows Server devices after its April update.…

Bit barns need to worry more about space, access to grid – overstuffed center no longer a must, say experts

UK AI datacenter capacity could migrate away from London as power shortages, planning constraints and reduced reliance on low-latency connections to financial firms make other locations more attractive.…

Companies get to keep IP developed for government projects

The UK government is opening £80 million in AI procurement talks with tech firms, drawing on its £500 million sovereign capability fund.…

Workstations that made distant desktops feel local is headed for a slow shutdown

HP is quietly pulling the plug on its Teradici-derived remote desktop business, shelving HP Anyware and its zero client hardware barely a few years after betting big on the tech as the backbone of its hybrid work push.…

Wouldn't be the first time a Jeff Bezos company left a package in the wrong place

Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket nailed the landing this weekend, but failed at the crucial part of delivering a satellite to a usable orbit.…

£330M deal leaves service with no ownership of software built to connect trusts to the platform

The UK government is considering ending Palantir's involvement in a central NHS data platform after coming under fire from MPs, unions, and campaigners.…

Committee launches inquiry into emerging chip designs to curb datacenter energy use

MPs are probing whether radically different, low-energy chip designs can stop AI from turning the UK's power grid into a bottleneck.…

Non profit loses several staffers including its executive director

Ruby Central, a nonprofit that supports the Ruby programming language ecosystem, is in "real financial jeopardy," according to a missive from its board members.…

Blames outfit called Context.ai, which reckons an agentic OAuth tangle caused the incident

Vercel, the company that created the open source Next.js web development framework, has a data leak that led to compromise of some customer credentials, and blamed an outfit called Context.ai for the mess.…

You can't fix what you can't see – especially when your workspace is a maelstrom

Who, Me?  Welcome to yet another Monday, and therefore to this week's edition of Who, Me? For those unfamiliar, it's The Register's reader-contributed column that shares your stories of workplace messes, and how you tried to clean them up without dirtying your career prospects.…

Tests scheduled for May can’t come soon enough after VGER 1 power glitch led to instrument shutdown

NASA has revealed it’s working on a plan called “The Big Bang” that it hopes will extend the working lives of the Voyager probes.…

PLUS: India bins ID app pre-install plan; Robot wins Beijing half-marathon; AI writing Manga speech bubbles; and more!

Asia In Brief  Indonesia’s Ministry of Communication and Digital Affairs has suspended the nation’s game rating system (IGRS) after claims the service leaked developer creds and video of unreleased games.…

Aren't we all just prompting tokens of linguistic meaning and hoping the other person isn't bullshitting us?

kettle  It's a week of the year, which means there's been the discovery of yet another prompt injection attack that will force supposedly well-guarded AI bots to spill secrets by asking the right way. …

Passing the buck, and the blame, down the road shows lack of AI companies' maturity

OPINION  AI vendors: "You need to use AI to fight AI threats (and do everything else in your corporate IT environment)." Also AI vendors: "That's not a security flaw; it's working as intended."…