Updated: 11:30 Tue, Apr 21 2026. (Last checked: 44 mins ago) |
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England's school phone ban gets teeth, just in time to bite no one - (pubDate>Tue, 21 Apr 2026 10:13:11 GMT)90% of schools already compliant, but at least now there's paperworkMinisters are moving to turn England's patchwork of school phone bans into law, after peers backed fresh changes to the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill in a Monday vote.… |
Task Manager's CPU meter is an obituary for the recent past, says the engineer who built it - (pubDate>Tue, 21 Apr 2026 09:15:12 GMT)Spoiler: There's no magic value. Just a timer, some kernel calls, and too much coffeeWindows has always had a built-in portal to the very recent past: Task Manager's CPU usage meter.… |
Adaptavist Group breach spawns imposter emails as ransomware crew claims mega-haul - (pubDate>Tue, 21 Apr 2026 08:30:10 GMT)Fake emails already doing the rounds as ransomware crew boasts about what it allegedly stoleUK enterprise software consultancy The Adaptavist Group is investigating a security breach after an intruder logged in with stolen credentials, while a ransomware crew claims it grabbed far more than the company is currently admitting.… |
Panasonic creates device-locked QR codes to speed facial biometric capture - (pubDate>Tue, 21 Apr 2026 07:37:42 GMT)Admins are tired of taking photos, so this enables secure on-site unattended enrolmentJapanese industrial giant Panasonic has created a new form of QR code it says will only work on designated devices and environments.… |
Iran claims US used backdoors to knock out networking equipment during war - (pubDate>Tue, 21 Apr 2026 06:21:36 GMT)And China is loving itIranian media is claiming that the US used backdoors and/or botnets to disable networking equipment during the current war, and Chinese state media is dining out on the allegations.… |
NASA Inspector fears new spacesuits won’t be ready for Moon landing - (pubDate>Tue, 21 Apr 2026 03:04:07 GMT)Dud contracts, proprietary designs, and zero-experience supplier make for quite the messThe NASA Office of Inspector General, the aerospace agency’s auditor, fears that work on next-generation spacesuits won’t finish in time to use them for the planned Artemis III Moon landing mission in 2028.… |
Microsoft's GitHub grounds Copilot account sign-ups amid capacity crunch - (pubDate>Mon, 20 Apr 2026 23:42:49 GMT)Remember what we promised when you subscribed for a year? Well, we've got a new deal that's better for us.Microsoft's GitHub has stopped accepting new Copilot individual subscriptions while the code hosting biz figures out how it can meet its service commitments without breaking the bank.… |
Vibe coding upstart Lovable denies data leak, cites 'intentional behavior,' then throws HackerOne under the bus - (pubDate>Mon, 20 Apr 2026 23:26:12 GMT)A lesson in how not to respond to vulnerability reportsUPDATED Vibe-coding platform Lovable is pooh-poohing a researcher’s finding that anyone could open a free account on the service and read other users' sensitive info, including credentials, chat history, and source code. However, the company’s story keeps changing: First it attributed the publicly exposed info to "intentional behavior" and "unclear documentation," then threw bug-bounty service HackerOne under the bus.… |
Trump-branded datacenter project fails to make itself great, again - (pubDate>Mon, 20 Apr 2026 23:07:31 GMT)The struggles continue for Fermi America's 17 GW bit barn ambitionsIt’s been a weekend filled with dizzying changes in the boardroom at datacenter wannabe Fermi America as it hopes eventually to expand its West Texas campus to about 17 gigawatts of behind-the-meter generation capacity.… |
World's blandest man steps down from CEO job to spend more time in tastefully appointed home - (pubDate>Mon, 20 Apr 2026 22:23:36 GMT)Tim Cook is handing the reins to John Ternus at AppleHave you heard? Apple's Tim Cook is stepping down after 15 years leading the iMaker's business. He'll become executive chairman and hand the reins over to John Ternus, a senior VP of hardware engineering, effective September 1.… |
Chase got a spiff of $77 million to create one job with New York datacenter - (pubDate>Mon, 20 Apr 2026 21:25:11 GMT)Official involved in deal tells El Reg number doesn't paint entire picture of datacenter's economic benefitWhen Rockland County, New York, approved nearly $77 million in tax breaks for JPMorgan Chase's datacenter expansion in 2024, no one showed up to object. Two years and a whole lot of bit barns in the news cycle later, government watchdogs are calling foul over the project's lone permanent job.… |
Claude Desktop changes app access settings for browsers you don't even have installed yet - (pubDate>Mon, 20 Apr 2026 19:56:55 GMT)Installation and pre-approval without consent looks dubious under EU lawOne 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.… |
Linux 7.1 will have an optional new NTFS driver - (pubDate>Mon, 20 Apr 2026 18:34:05 GMT)Good news for those working with Windows, bad news for Paragon SoftwareThe feature list for Linux kernel 7.1 is taking shape, and a standout addition has already landed: a new read-write NTFS driver.… |
Scot becomes second Scattered Spider-linked crook to plead guilty in US - (pubDate>Mon, 20 Apr 2026 17:22:17 GMT)Tyler Buchanan admits role in scheme that stole at least $8 million in virtual currencyA 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.… |
You too can build a nuclear battery from junk you have lying around the house - (pubDate>Mon, 20 Apr 2026 16:29:29 GMT)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.… |
Schmoozebots: Study finds flattery will get AI everywhere - (pubDate>Mon, 20 Apr 2026 16:07:14 GMT)Excessive friendliness may cause users to forget they're talking to a very confident autocompleteA study into how humans interact with chatbots suggests the fastest way to make an LLM feel human isn't making it smarter – it's making it seem nicer.… |
One of Europe's sovereign cloud picks may not be so-sovereign after all - (pubDate>Mon, 20 Apr 2026 15:50:46 GMT)US-based cloud providers could have to disclose certain data under American legal ordersUpdated The European Commission has awarded four contracts designed to advance cloud sovereignty in the EU, but one uses services from S3NS, a joint venture between Thales and Google Cloud, raising questions about its real independence.… |
New Android development tool designed for robots, not humans - (pubDate>Mon, 20 Apr 2026 15:24:54 GMT)Google previews Android CLI as agentic development continues to snowballGoogle 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.… |
Microsoft releases Windows Server update fix to fix its April update fixes - (pubDate>Mon, 20 Apr 2026 13:15:06 GMT)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.… |
AI is reshaping Britain's datacenter map away from London - (pubDate>Mon, 20 Apr 2026 12:38:39 GMT)Bit barns need to worry more about space, access to grid – overstuffed center no longer a must, say expertsUK 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.… |
UK.gov kicks off half-a-billion quid sovereign AI venture with £80M invite - (pubDate>Mon, 20 Apr 2026 12:13:03 GMT)Companies get to keep IP developed for government projectsThe UK government is opening £80 million in AI procurement talks with tech firms, drawing on its £500 million sovereign capability fund.… |
HP's remote desktop push retreats as Anyware heads for end of life - (pubDate>Mon, 20 Apr 2026 11:25:32 GMT)Workstations that made distant desktops feel local is headed for a slow shutdownHP 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.… |
Blue Origin nails the landing, but puts the payload satellite in the wrong orbit - (pubDate>Mon, 20 Apr 2026 09:49:32 GMT)Wouldn't be the first time a Jeff Bezos company left a package in the wrong placeBlue Origin's New Glenn rocket nailed the landing this weekend, but failed at the crucial part of delivering a satellite to a usable orbit.… |
Palantir's NHS future in doubt as ministers eye contract break - (pubDate>Mon, 20 Apr 2026 09:27:13 GMT)£330M deal leaves service with no ownership of software built to connect trusts to the platformThe UK government is considering ending Palantir's involvement in a central NHS data platform after coming under fire from MPs, unions, and campaigners.… |
Growing AI power slurpage prompts MPs to examine low-energy computing - (pubDate>Mon, 20 Apr 2026 09:23:41 GMT)Committee launches inquiry into emerging chip designs to curb datacenter energy useMPs are probing whether radically different, low-energy chip designs can stop AI from turning the UK's power grid into a bottleneck.… |
AI quota inflation is no token effort. It's baked in - (pubDate>Mon, 20 Apr 2026 08:25:07 GMT)We've been here before. This time, we may not get outOpinion 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.… |
Next.js developer Vercel warns of customer credential compromise - (pubDate>Mon, 20 Apr 2026 07:31:13 GMT)Blames outfit called Context.ai, which reckons an agentic OAuth tangle caused the incidentVercel, 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.… |
'Invisible mouse' made a mess of PC rebuild - (pubDate>Mon, 20 Apr 2026 07:01:09 GMT)You can't fix what you can't see – especially when your workspace is a maelstromWho, 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.… |
NASA working on ‘Big Bang’ upgrade to keep the Voyagers alive for longer - (pubDate>Mon, 20 Apr 2026 05:52:05 GMT)Tests scheduled for May can’t come soon enough after VGER 1 power glitch led to instrument shutdownNASA has revealed it’s working on a plan called “The Big Bang” that it hopes will extend the working lives of the Voyager probes.… |
Indonesia’s game rating system paused amid claims it leaked developer creds and glimpses of major new titles - (pubDate>Mon, 20 Apr 2026 02:07:30 GMT)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.… |
Just like phishing for gullible humans, prompt injecting AIs is here to stay - (pubDate>Sun, 19 Apr 2026 23:00:14 GMT)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. … |
I meant to do that! AI vendors shrug off responsibility for vulns - (pubDate>Sun, 19 Apr 2026 11:07:07 GMT)Passing the buck, and the blame, down the road shows lack of AI companies' maturityOPINION 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."… |
Ruby Central in 'real financial jeopardy' following RubyGems maintainer ruckus - (pubDate>Sun, 19 Apr 2026 08:00:10 GMT)Non profit loses several staffers including its executive directorRuby Central, a nonprofit that supports the Ruby programming language ecosystem, is in "real financial jeopardy," according to a missive from its board members.… |
Cloudflare can remember it for you wholesale - (pubDate>Sat, 18 Apr 2026 08:30:13 GMT)Agent Memory stores AI chat scraps off to the side and recalls them when neededNot only is hardware memory scarce these days, but context memory, the conversational data exchanged with AI models, can be an issue too.… |
Atlassian’s new data collection policy protects rich customers while AI eats the rest - (pubDate>Sat, 18 Apr 2026 07:30:10 GMT)From August 17, the outfit will collect customer metadata by default unless you pay for the top tierUnless a customer pays for the most expensive enterprise license, or the law forbids it, Atlassian is going to collect their data to train its AI models. And you can't fully opt out.… |
Intel eases reliance on TSMC with 'Merica-made Core Series 3 processors - (pubDate>Fri, 17 Apr 2026 21:46:32 GMT)Stripped-down Ultra for laptops and low-power edge boxesIntel brought a few more chips home from Taiwan this week, with a new round of budget-oriented Core Series 3 processors fabbed right in the US-of-A.… |
Anthropic mocks up Claude Design to draft fancy new pink slips for marketing teams - (pubDate>Fri, 17 Apr 2026 20:38:02 GMT)The bar for creating visual assets has been lowered to the ability to converse with a modelAnthropic is known for its industry-leading Claude Code that writes programs, but why stop there? The company, on Friday, introduced a research preview service called Claude Design that creates visual assets, potentially putting some folks out of work.… |
CISA tells feds to patch 13-year-old Apache ActiveMQ bug under active attack - (pubDate>Fri, 17 Apr 2026 17:09:51 GMT)Bug hiding in plain sight for over a decade lands on KEV listCISA is sounding the alarm on a newly-exploited Apache ActiveMQ bug, ordering federal agencies to patch within two weeks as attackers circle a flaw that's been quietly lurking for more than a decade.… |
Opsec oopsie: Dutch navy frigate location outed by mailing it a Bluetooth tracker - (pubDate>Fri, 17 Apr 2026 16:31:32 GMT)Or, how public information and a €5 tracker exposed an avoidable opsec lapseMilitaries around the world spend countless hours training, developing policies, and implementing best operational security practices, so imagine the size of the egg on the face of the Dutch navy when journalists managed to track one of its warships for less than the cost of some hagelslag and a coffee.… |
Users complain that UK Azure is having capacity problems - (pubDate>Fri, 17 Apr 2026 14:56:26 GMT)We hear Sweden is lovely place for workloads to visitMicrosoft Azure capacity woes are back, and worse than ever, judging by the complaints of UK users.… |
Microsoft closes book on rogue Windows Server 2025 upgrades - (pubDate>Fri, 17 Apr 2026 12:29:09 GMT)Starts new one on boot loopsMore than a year after giving administrators an unwelcome surprise with a security update that turned out to be a Windows Server 2025 upgrade, Microsoft has marked the incident as "resolved."… |
NASA gets the ball rolling on its part in Europe's jinxed Mars rover mission - (pubDate>Fri, 17 Apr 2026 11:39:13 GMT)Rosalind Franklin moving again, though another budget cut loomsNASA is moving ahead with its contribution to the European Space Agency's (ESA) long-delayed Rosalind Franklin Mars rover despite another attempt by the Trump administration to cut funding for the effort.… |
Attention data hoarders: Alexa loses its Plex appeal as voice feature gets canned - (pubDate>Fri, 17 Apr 2026 10:45:12 GMT)Users who stream their own media files ticked off as Plex warns Alexa skill will die on June 15Plex is pulling the plug on its Alexa integration, leaving anyone who relied on voice commands to wrangle their media library out of luck.… |
Locked-out iPhone user tells The Reg that Apple is scrambling to fix character flaw passcode bug - (pubDate>Fri, 17 Apr 2026 10:00:08 GMT)University student says he plans to move to Android, but concedes iOS engineers acting fastApple is finally working on a fix for a bug that has locked some users out of their iPhones for months, The Register understands.… |
Would you like fries with that terminal? - (pubDate>Fri, 17 Apr 2026 09:15:12 GMT)Jack might be on Track, but the order screen certainly isn'tBork!Bork!Bork! It was not so much Jack in the Box as Bork on the Screen at a US drive-through fast food outlet the other day. Luckily, a Reg reader was there to take it all in.… |
Capita won disastrous UK pensions gig after acing performance checks - (pubDate>Fri, 17 Apr 2026 08:30:13 GMT)Top civil servant tells MPs bid was strong on quality and value for moneyThe UK government awarded Capita a £239 million contract to run the Civil Service Pension Scheme (CSPS) after assessing its past performance, despite the rollout later leaving thousands of retirees waiting for payments, a senior civil servant has said.… |
Support tech caught by 'Technician Aura': the bug that only hides when you're watching - (pubDate>Fri, 17 Apr 2026 07:29:07 GMT)All that kit, and the fix was simply stepping asideOn Call Life is filled with random events, but The Register tries to make readers’ lives just a little more predictable by always using Friday morning to bring you a new instalment of On Call – the reader-contributed column that shares your tech support stories.… |
Claude Opus wrote a Chrome exploit for $2,283 - (pubDate>Fri, 17 Apr 2026 07:02:09 GMT)Pause your Mythos panic because mainstream models anyone can use already pick holes in popular softwareAnthropic withheld its Mythos bug-finding model from public release due to concerns that it would enable attackers to find and exploit vulnerabilities before anyone could react.… |
IOWN Global Forum targets datacenter interconnects to scatter AI infrastructure - (pubDate>Fri, 17 Apr 2026 06:15:07 GMT)Fast WAN consortium thinks neoclouds are ripe for hookupsThe IOWN Global Forum will likely focus on datacenter interconnect use cases in the, to help diverse providers of AI infrastructure ply their trade.… |
Cisco Wi-Fi boxes are filling their disks with 5MB of undeletable data every day - (pubDate>Fri, 17 Apr 2026 04:35:46 GMT)Fix for critical flaw is an OS update you may not be able to make because the junk data uses all memoryMore than 230 different models of Cisco Wi-Fi access points may be writing 5MB a day of nonessential data, filling their onboard flash memory to the point at which they lack space for future software updates.… |
