Enlarge / “Hmm, no signal here. I’m trying to figure it out, but nothing comes to mind …” (credit: Getty Images) One issue in getting office buildings networked that you don’t typically face at home is concrete—and lots of it. Concrete walls are an average of 8 inches thick inside most commercial real estate. Keeping a network running through them is not merely a matter of running cord. Not everybody…

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images) Federal prosecutors on Thursday unsealed an indictment charging six Russian nationals with conspiracy to hack into the computer networks of the Ukrainian government and its allies and steal or destroy sensitive data on behalf of the Kremlin. The indictment, filed in US District Court for the District of Maryland, said that five of the men were officers in Unit 29155 of the Russian Main Intelligence Directorate…

Enlarge AT&T filed a lawsuit against Broadcom on August 29 accusing it of seeking to “retroactively change existing VMware contracts to match its new corporate strategy.” The lawsuit, spotted by Channel Futures, concerns claims that Broadcom is not letting AT&T renew support services for previously purchased perpetual VMware software licenses unless AT&T meets certain conditions. Broadcom closed its $61 billion VMware acquisition in November and swiftly enacted sweeping changes. For…

Enlarge / Apple’s event will likely discuss Apple Intelligence, though that’s not going to launch until later in the year with iOS 18.1 (credit: Apple) For years, Apple’s September event has focused almost exclusively on new flagship iPhones and new Apple Watch models. Once in a while, other second-tier products make an appearance. And in recent cycles, the Mac and high-end iPads had their shining moment later in the year—often…

Enlarge / Spotify released the Car Thing to the general public in February 2022. It’s bricking them in December. (credit: Spotify) For some of us, few things are more infuriating than a gadget that stops working due to a software change. As we’ve frequently covered here at Ars, startups and Big Tech companies are guilty of rendering hardware obsolete and/or stripping it of core functions. Consumer groups are urging the…

Enlarge (credit: Jorg Greuel via Getty Images) Over the weekend, the nonprofit National Novel Writing Month organization (NaNoWriMo) published an FAQ outlining its position on AI, calling categorical rejection of AI writing technology “classist” and “ableist.” The statement caused a backlash online, prompted four members of the organization’s board to step down, and prompted a sponsor to withdraw its support. “We believe that to categorically condemn AI would be to…

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images) Networking hardware-maker Zyxel is warning of nearly a dozen vulnerabilities in a wide array of its products. If left unpatched, some of them could enable the complete takeover of the devices, which can be targeted as an initial point of entry into large networks. The most serious vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2024-7261, can be exploited to “allow an unauthenticated attacker to execute OS commands by sending a…

Enlarge / A ratgdo, version 2.53i. (credit: Ratcloud LLC) I live in suburbia, which means I’ve got a garage (or a carhole, if you’re not so fancy). It’s a detached garage, so part of my nightly routine when I check to make sure the house is all locked up is to peek out the back window. I like to know the garage door is closed and our cars are tucked…

Enlarge (credit: Qualcomm) Windows-on-Arm is finally just about good enough to serve as your main PC, thanks to a combination of long-awaited Snapdragon X-series silicon from Qualcomm, Arm-specific improvements in the Windows 11 24H2 update, and third-party software developers that are slowly but surely putting out Arm-native versions of their most popular apps. So far, those Snapdragon X chips have been confined mostly to $1,000-and-up premium PCs like the Surface…

Enlarge / An ABC handout promotional image for “AI and the Future of Us: An Oprah Winfrey Special.” (credit: ABC) On Thursday, ABC announced an upcoming TV special titled, “AI and the Future of Us: An Oprah Winfrey Special.” The one-hour show, set to air on September 12, aims to explore AI’s impact on daily life and will feature interviews with figures in the tech industry, like OpenAI CEO Sam…