The Register

Mozilla hardens its browser and toys with AI search while closing the door on legacy systems

New versions of both Mozilla's browser and its subsidiary MZLA's messaging client are here – with some bad news for users of older kit.…

Minister pins hopes on low Earth orbit satellites to plug crap rail connectivity

Data-hungry rail passengers will have to wait until at least 2030 before getting something like universal mobile data coverage across the UK, a minister confirmed this week.…

Windows 10 is the least of some people's problems

Windows 10's free support has shuffled off this mortal coil for most customers – but that's merely the headline act in Microsoft's October support massacre. Older versions of Office and Windows Server have also been shown the door.…

No custom Arm CPUs to speak of yet

Meta on Wednesday entered into a partnership with Arm Holdings with the aim of helping its software run more efficiently on the British chip designer's CPUs.…

Free Software Foundation project aims to reverse-engineer non-freedom respecting firmware

To bridge the gap between Android distributions and true mobile phone freedom, the Free Software Foundation (FSF) has launched an initiative called Librephone.…

Federal agencies have seven days to patch F5 products

An unidentified nation-state hacking crew targeting vulnerable F5 products to break into US government networks poses an "imminent risk" to federal agencies, American cyber officials warned on Wednesday – while also blaming Democrats for the ongoing government shutdown and insisting that the staffing cuts haven't hurt cyber defenses at all.…

Meet [user] from [location]

In an effort to help human readers figure out whether they can trust the source of information (or opinion) posted on X, Elon Musk’s social network plans to add a new "About this account" screen with metadata from each user, including their location, how long they’ve had the account, and how many times they've changed their usernames.…

Oh and the CPU is up to 15% faster for those that could care less about articifically intelligent Apple products and more about getting work done

Apple's fifth-generation of M-series silicon is starting to trickle out with the launch of the M5 MacBook, iPad, and Vision Pros this week.…

Tokyo cries foul over Sora slop abusing 'irreplaceable treasures' of anime, manga - oh, and copyright law

OpenAI’s Sora 2 video generator has gone viral, particularly among users churning out anime that looks suspiciously like Studio Ghibli and other copyrighted works. Alarmed by the threat to one of its prized cultural exports, Japan has reportedly lodged a formal request that the American firm knock it off.…

Big Tech and big money unite to back world’s biggest bit-barn buyout

The AI bubble just keeps getting bigger. A consortium featuring BlackRock, Microsoft, Nvidia, xAI, and MGX is buying Aligned Data Centers in a deal valuing the operator at around $40 billion, in what is reportedly the biggest datacenter acquisition to date.…

Only 13% are AI-ready; the rest are bolting it on and hoping for ROI

Contrary to popular belief, you can't succeed in business (or AI) without really trying. Many orgs are jumping on the AI bandwagon without the infrastructure they need to make it work or track results, Cisco says. Most haven't even defined what they want their AI agents to do.…

Vibe coding may have played a role in what took researchers months to fix

Developers of VS Code extensions are leaking sensitive secrets left, right and center, according to researchers who worked with Microsoft to combat an issue that could have led to some nasty supply chain attacks.…

Raymond Chen says the OS used green-screen overlays to fake video playback – with curious side effects

Microsoft veteran Raymond Chen has answered a lingering Windows question – why did video screenshots keep playing in Paint?…

Beijing's self-reliance push and US export limits hit orders

Europe's tech darling ASML has warned Chinese demand for its chipmaking kit will plummet next year, as Beijing doubles down on home-grown alternatives in response to Uncle Sam's export restrictions and trade war shenanigans.…

Downstream Linux projects line up behind the latest release

A month after Debian 13.1's release, some of the more visible downstream forks, including Raspberry Pi OS, have decided it's time to incorporate the latest version of the main OS into their builds.…

Second huge increase in six months sees some devs heading for the exit

Augment has updated its pricing model for Augment Code, an AI coding assistant, to be based on AI usage rather than message interactions. The company said its existing model "isn't sustainable" but users have calculated that the new one is more than ten times as expensive.…

IDC and Counterpoint say premium kit is driving sales in both new and used markets

Premium devices are what smartphone buyers want right now, and it seems that applies equally to the latest devices and second-hand models destined for emerging markets.…

ICO makes example of outsourcing giant over sluggish cyber response

The UK's Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has issued a £14 million ($18.6 million) penalty to outsourcing giant Capita following a catastrophic 2023 cyberattack that exposed the personal data of 6.6 million people.…

Germany's northernmost state bins Outlook – and tens of thousands of Redmond licenses

Schleswig-Holstein, the northernmost state of Germany, has finally concluded one element of a long-running project to eject Microsoft from its infrastructure by giving Exchange Server the boot.…

University team picks up voice calls, texts, and corporate data from orbit with off-the-shelf kit

Updated  Geostationary satellites are broadcasting large volumes of unencrypted data to Earth, including private voice calls and text messages as well as consumer internet traffic, researchers have discovered.…