Andrew Cunningham writes via Ars Technica: If you or your employer uses Microsoft Teams for communication, good news: Microsoft is releasing a fully rewritten version today for Windows PCs and Macs that promises to run faster while using fewer system resources. A preview of this app was originally released for Windows in March, but the final release covers all types of Teams instances, re-adds support for features like breakout rooms and third-party app support, and supports macOS. The new Teams app is notable for improved performance and reduced disk space usage, especially when running on Windows PCs. Microsoft says that the reformulated version of Teams is “up to two times faster while using 50 percent less memory” on Windows systems. That sound you hear is old and underspecced work PCs in offices around the world breathing a sigh of relief.

Microsoft credits its Edge WebView2 backend with helping improve performance and reduce disk usage on Windows. That’s possible partly because WebView2 can use many of the same system files and the same runtime as the Edge browser built into Windows 10 and Windows 11. The older Teams app used the Electron framework, also used by communication apps like Slack and Discord. Though Electron and WebView2 are based on the Chromium browser engine, each Electron app includes its own self-contained version of the browser files, which all must be stored and updated separately.

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Source: Slashdot – Rebuilt Microsoft Teams App Promises Twice the Speed, Half the RAM Usage

Jonathan Josephs & Antoinette Radford reporting via the BBC: Nasa astronauts will be flying in style, with luxury fashion designer Prada helping design space suits for the 2025 moon mission. The Italian fashion house will work to design the suits alongside another private company, Axiom Space. In a press release, Axiom said Prada would bring expertise with materials and manufacturing to the project. One astronaut told the BBC he thought Prada was up to the challenge due to their design experience. That experience has been built not only on the catwalks of Milan but also through Prada’s involvement in the America’s Cup sailing competition.

“Prada has considerable experience with various types of composite fabrics and may actually be able to make some real technical contributions to the outer layers of the new space suit,” according to Professor Jeffrey Hoffman, who flew five Nasa missions and has carried out four spacewalks. But, he said people should not expect to see astronauts in “paisley spacesuits or any fancy patterns like that. Maintaining a good thermal environment is really the critical thing”. “A spacesuit is really like a miniature spacecraft. It has to provide pressure, oxygen, keep you at a reasonable temperature,” he added.

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Source: Slashdot – Prada To Design NASA’s New Moon Suit

An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Financial Times: Belgium’s intelligence service has been monitoring Alibaba’s main logistics hub in Europe for espionage following suspicions Beijing has been exploiting its growing economic presence in the west. European governments have been increasing scrutiny of the alleged security and economic risks posed by Chinese companies, which has been part of a wider reassessment of the EU’s traditional openness to trade with China. In specific reference to Alibaba’s logistics arm at the cargo airport in Liege, Belgium’s security services told the Financial Times they were working to detect “possible espionage and/or interference activities” carried out by Chinese entities “including Alibaba”.

Alibaba, which denies any wrongdoing, signed an agreement with Belgium in 2018 to open the hub in Liege, Europe’s fifth-largest cargo airport, ploughing 100 million euros of investment into the ailing economy of the French-speaking Walloon region. But almost two years on from the site being opened, the Belgian State Security Service (VSSE) has continued monitoring Alibaba’s operations following intelligence assessments, said people familiar with the matter. One area of scrutiny includes the introduction of software systems that collate sensitive economic information. The security service said the presence of Alibaba “constitutes a point of attention for the VSSE” because of legislation forcing Chinese companies to share their data with Chinese authorities and intelligence services. “China has the intent and capacity to use this data for non-commercial purposes,” the agency said.

Concerns about potential espionage at the site were first raised before the hub was built, including in the Belgian parliament. At the time China strongly denied the “unprovoked insinuations” over exaggerated “so-called security risks of Chinese companies.” The VSSE’s statement to the FT indicate its concerns over espionage still remain after the opening of the hub. […] The main concern is that this platform, alongside a couple of other logistical platforms that the Chinese have been proposing to European countries, is giving them a lot of insights into supply chains and into eventual vulnerabilities,” said Jonathan Holslag, a professor at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. According to a person familiar with Alibaba’s relations to China’s government, the logistics centers are expected to pass on information about local sentiment and report data about European trade and logistics to Beijing’s authorities. “The site in Liege is the only European logistics center run by Alibaba’s logistics spin-off Cainiao,” reports the FT. The company is reportedly able to access data about merchants, products, transport details and flows. It may also be able to access information about final customers.

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Source: Slashdot – Alibaba Accused of ‘Possible Espionage’ At European Hub

Slash_Account_Dot shares a report from 404 Media, written by Joseph Cox: In a bombshell report, an oversight body for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) found that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Customs and Border Enforcement (CBP), and the Secret Service all broke the law while using location data harvested from ordinary apps installed on smartphones. In one instance, a CBP official also inappropriately used the technology to track the location of coworkers with no investigative purpose. For years U.S. government agencies have been buying access to location data through commercial vendors, a practice which critics say skirts the Fourth Amendment requirement of a warrant. During that time, the agencies have typically refused to publicly explain the legal basis on which they based their purchase and use of the data. Now, the report shows that three of the main customers of commercial location data broke the law while doing so, and didn’t have any supervisory review to ensure proper use of the technology. The report also recommends that ICE stop all use of such data until it obtains the necessary approvals, a request that ICE has refused.

The report, titled “CBP, ICE, and Secret Service Did Not Adhere to Privacy Policies or Develop Sufficient Policies Before Procuring and Using Commercial Telemetry Data,” is dated September 28, 2023, and comes from Joseph V. Cuffari, the Inspector General for DHS. The report was originally marked as “law enforcement sensitive,” but the Inspector General has now released it publicly.

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Source: Slashdot – ICE, CBP, Secret Service All Illegally Used Smartphone Location Data

At CES 2023, a startup called Displace introduced their “truly wireless” TV with swappable batteries and a vacuum suction system that can keep the display adhered to walls without traditional mounting. To address concerns about what would happen when those batteries become depleted or when the wall/surface the TV is mounted to cracks, Displace says it has designed a built-in landing gear safety system to protect the $3,000 wireless TV. The Verge reports: Here, friends, is where Displace’s “self-lowering landing gear technology” comes in. And I’m just going to quote directly from the press release so you can get the full rundown on how it supposedly works: “Sensors within the Displace TV constantly measure the battery level and pressure in the vacuum suction system, analyze the wall’s surface, and check leakage on the vacuum pumps. If the vacuum pumps are in danger of not maintaining a seal or the wall’s integrity falters, the Displace TV automatically deploys four quick adhesives for stability and initiates a self-lowering landing gear system. The adhesives work as anchor points, as the Displace TV begins to lower itself gently on a zipline (from as high as 10 feet) and deploys a reusable foam at the bottom to protect the TV screen.”

When a problem is detected, the Displace attaches an adhesive frame onto the wall and begins lowering the display to the floor (with rope) from that frame. As all of this is happening, the TV generates a lot of sound and even flashing lights in an attempt to keep the area clear of children or animals. Once it’s safely on the ground, you can pull the frame off the wall and reinsert it into the back of the TV. […] The self-landing technology works at heights of up to 10 feet. When you’re ready to put the TV back in its place, you just push the foam feet back into the TV, replace the adhesive tapes, and that’s it. You can watch a demo of the safety system on YouTube.

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Source: Slashdot – Displace Came Up With a Landing Gear Safety System For Its Totally Wireless TV

James Hunt reports via The Block: A group of FTX U.S.-based employees stumbled across a backdoor for its affiliated trading firm Alameda Research months before the crypto exchange collapsed in Nov. 2022, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. The backdoor allowed Alameda to have a negative balance of up to $65 billion using customer funds, according to previous court filings revealing code buried in FTX’s systems. Negative balances were not possible for other FTX users, who would be automatically liquidated if they fell into the red.

The employees reportedly alerted their division boss to the discovery, who discussed it with former FTX CEO Sam Bankman Fried’s lieutenant Nishad Singh, but the issue was never resolved. Instead, the leader of the team who raised the concern was sacked, the WSJ said. […] The backdoor forms a key part of the prosecution’s case in Bankman-Fried’s trial. Bankman-Fried faces multiple fraud charges and could serve decades in prison. He pleaded not guilty to all charges.

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Source: Slashdot – FTX Employees Discovered Alameda’s Billion Backdoor Months Before Collapse

An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Following preliminary objections over Google’s data terms, set out back in January by Germany’s antitrust watchdog, the tech giant has agreed to make changes that will give users a better choice over its use of their information, the country’s Federal Cartel Office (FCO) said today. The commitments cover situations where Google would like to combine personal data from one Google service with personal data from other Google or non-Google sources or cross-use these data in Google services that are provided separately, per the authority.

Per the FCO decision document (PDF): “The Commitments cover in principle all services operated by Google and directed to end users in Germany with more than one million monthly active users (MAU) in Germany [and Android Automotive whether it meets that threshold or not].” But, as we report below, Google’s core platform services designated under the EU’s DMA are not covered — nor is Fitbit, which the document notes is already subject to “far-reaching obligations regarding the cross-service processing of health and wellness data” as a result of EU merger control. […]

Per the FCO decision document, the implementation date (in principle) for Google’s commitments is September 30, 2024 — with an earlier date of March 6, 2024 for commitments covering Google Assistant and Contacts. But the FCO notes that it may provide Google with an extension upon “substantiated request”. Once implemented, the commitments will have a five year duration from their start date. The document also notes that if, in the future, a Google service falls out of the DMA designation as a core platform service and meets the FCO usage threshold then these local commitments will be applied to it. The converse will also apply; meaning if the European Commission designates one of the Google services covered by this commitments to the DMA list of core platform services it would no longer fall under this arrangement. Gmail is an interesting example here as the EU recently accepted Google’s arguments to exclude the web mail service from the DMA list of core platform services — but the tech giant is facing future restrictions on how it can use Gmail users’ data under the FCO commitments (even if these will only apply in Germany). Commenting in a statement, Andreas Mundt, president of the Bundeskartellamt, said: “Data are key for many business models used by large digital companies. The market power of large digital companies is based on the collection, processing and combination of data. Google’s competitors do not have these data and are thus faced with serious competitive disadvantages. In the future users of Google services will have a much better choice as to what happens to their data, how Google can use them and whether their data may be used across services. This not only protects the users’ right to determine the use of their data but also curbs Google’s data-driven market power. Large digital companies offer a wide range of different digital services. Without the users’ free and informed consent the data from Google’s services and third-party services can no longer be cross-used in separate services offered by Google or even be combined. We have made sure that Google will provide a separate choice option in the future.”

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Source: Slashdot – Google Agrees To Reform Its Data Terms After German Antitrust Intervention

Hyundai and Kia said on Thursday that they will adopt Tesla’s electric vehicle charging technology in the United States. Reuters reports: Joining their global peers, including Ford Motor, General Motors and Nissan in adopting Tesla’s North American Charging Standard (NACS), Hyundai’s and Kia’s moves take the Elon Musk-led company’s superchargers closer to becoming the industry standard at the expense of the rival Combined Charging System (CCS). Hyundai and Kia’s new EVs will come with a NACS port, starting in the fourth quarter of 2024 in the United States, the companies said.

However, in Canada, Hyundai EVs equipped with the NACS port would be available in the first half of 2025, while Kia’s EVs with the technology by the end of 2024. The move gives Hyundai and Kia EVs with NACS ports access to more than 12,000 Tesla Superchargers across the United States, Canada, and Mexico, the companies said. The South Korean automakers also said that they would offer adapters to owners of existing and future Hyundai and Kia EVs with the current CCS giving them access to Tesla’s Supercharging Network in the first quarter of 2025.

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Source: Slashdot – Hyundai, Kia To Adopt Tesla EV-Charging Standard From 2024 In US

Paul Kunert writes via The Register: Talking on stage at the Canalys EMEA Forum 2023, Luca Rossi, senior vice resident at Lenovo and president of its Intelligent Devices Group, said the company has committed to a net zero emission policy by 2050, and analyzing the components used in its hardware is part of the equation. “On repairability, we have a plan that by 2025 more than 80 percent of the repair parts will be repaired again so that they they enter into the circular economy to reduce the impact to the environment.” He added: “More than 80 percent of our devices will be able to be repaired at the customer, by the customer or by the channel and we are enabling this with a design for serviceability kind of approach.” This means that “batteries, SSD, many things, will not any longer be sealed into the product but will be available for the customer to be to repaired on site and then save a lot of waste.”

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Source: Slashdot – Lenovo PC Boss: 80% of Our Devices To Be Repairable By 2025