Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum pointed out that the United States’ claim to name the ocean area only applies for up to 12 nautical miles off its coastline.
Mexico Is Threatening Google Over Ridiculous ‘Gulf of America’ Name Change
Monthly Archives: February 2025
Linuxiac Weekly Wrap-Up: Week 7 (Feb 10 – 16, 2025)
Catch up on the latest Linux news: Plasma 6.3, Endeavour OS Mercury, GNOME’s new website, Tumbleweed’s move to SELinux, Serpent OS’s change to AerynOS, and more.
Wasmer 6.0 Wires Up Support For Multiple Heterogeneous Backends
For those interested in WebAssembly for the “run anywhere” prospects and container-like secure execution, Wasmer remains one of the leading WASM runtime options. Wasmer 6.0 Alpha 1 is out today as the latest to further along this quest…
3D map of exoplanet atmosphere shows wacky climate
Astronomers have detected over 5,800 confirmed exoplanets. One extreme class is ultra-hot Jupiters, of particular interest because they can provide a unique window into planetary atmospheric dynamics. According to a new paper published in the journal Nature, astronomers have mapped the 3D structure of the layered atmosphere of one such ultra-hot Jupiter-size exoplanet, revealing powerful winds that create intricate weather patterns across that atmosphere. A companion paper published in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics reported on the unexpected identification of titanium in the exoplanet’s atmosphere as well.
As previously reported, thanks to the massive trove of exoplanets discovered by the Kepler mission, we now have a good idea of what kinds of planets are out there, where they orbit, and how common the different types are. What we lack is a good sense of what that implies in terms of the conditions on the planets themselves. Kepler can tell us how big a planet is, but it doesn’t know what the planet is made of. And planets in the “habitable zone” around stars could be consistent with anything from a blazing hell to a frozen rock.
Like the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), Kepler identifies planets using the transit method. This works for systems in which the planets orbit in a plane that takes them between their host star and Earth. As this occurs, the planet blocks a small fraction of the starlight that we see from Earth (or nearby orbits). If these dips in light occur with regularity, they’re diagnostic of something orbiting the star.
Your Car Might Have a ‘Secret’ Warranty
Owning a car is expensive—even new cars need tune-ups, regular maintenance, and occasional repair, and it all adds up (to an average of about $1,452 every year). Car warranties help mitigate those costs, but they typically only cover three years or up to 36,000 miles, which goes by pretty fast, considering most people drive about 15,000 miles per year.
That drives people to look for ways to save money on car repairs, especially if the car is outside the warranty period. But are you sure your car is out of warranty? It’s possible that even if the official warranty has expired, your car is covered to some extent by what’s variously known as “policy adjustments,” “service campaigns,” or “good-will programs.” Whatever the official name, let’s call them what they really are: They’re “secret warranties,” and they could potentially save you a lot of money.
What’s a secret warranty?
A secret warranty comes into being when a car manufacturer realizes that a part or component in one of their car models is defective, usually due to unusually high failure rates or other problems. To manage the situation and protect themselves from liability, they will extend the warranty on that part, offering free replacement parts using new versions or discounts on service work.
So what makes them secret? These warranty extensions aren’t official recalls—they’re voluntary programs from the manufacturer—so there’s actually no law that compels them to notify people. While vehicle owners are sometimes notified of these extended warranties, this is usually done by mail and many people simply don’t read the letters. Additionally, no effort is made to contact secondary owners who bought the vehicle pre-owned, and dealers rarely reach out to publicize free or discounted repairs.
The Center for Auto Safety estimates that at any given time there are more than 500 secret warranties active from all the auto manufacturers combined. Each one represents repair and safety work you might be able to get at no cost or at a discounted rate—if you can find out about them.
How to check
Secret warranties are typically communicated to dealers via what’s known as a technical service bulletin (TSB), which lets the dealer know that they can replace a part or perform some kind of service on specific models (sometimes even specific ranges of Vehicle Identification Numbers, or VINs) at a reduced rate or no cost.
You can potentially find out about TSBs and secret warranties in three ways:
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State laws. While no federal law exists requiring the disclosure of secret warranties, five states have these laws on the books: California, Connecticut, Maryland, Virginia, and Wisconsin. These states require car dealerships to notify you when the warranty on your car is extended or otherwise modified.
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The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) site. The NHTSA maintains a database of TSBs. You can enter your car’s information and see a list of “Manufacturer Communications.” These can be a chore to read through and understand, but it can be worth the trouble if you find out you can have your car serviced for free. For example, here’s a memo from Ford detailing an extended warranty on a range of Escape SUVs and Fusion sedans.
One caveat: Just because there’s a TSB (or several) for your car’s make and model doesn’t mean there’s a secret warranty—they just indicate that a problem exists and the dealer has been given instructions on how to fix it. But having a copy of that communication from the manufacturer will help you find out from your dealer if there’s a secret warranty you can take advantage of.
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Call the dealer. Finally, you can try simply calling the dealer who sold you the car and ask. Have your VIN ready and ask them to check for warranty adjustments or extensions.
Note that just like the original warranty, these “secret” warranties have deadlines. If you find out about them after their effective period has expired, you won’t be able to take advantage of them.
RFK Jr. Touts ‘Spirituality’ as Fix for America’s Health Problems
“Our overall wellness must begin with a spiritual question,” Kennedy said.
The BBC Has Denied Doctor Who‘s Latest Round of Cancellation Rumors
With the show’s future increasingly up in the air, the BBC insists that no decision has been made to call time on the Time Lord.
Lloyds Is Auditing Thousands of IT Staffers’ Technical Skills
Lloyds Banking Group is assessing the skills of thousands of technology staffers in the UK to determine whether they can keep working at the bank once it upgrades its technology [alternative source]. Bloomberg: The British lender, which is carrying out a multiyear overhaul of its systems, put these workers on notice this month that they are at risk of losing their jobs and will be required to reapply for new positions across the bank, according to people familiar with the matter. In a company town hall last week, executives informed those staffers that they were in the process of assessing their technical skills based on a test they took last year to determine where, if anywhere, they can be placed within Lloyds, the people said, asking not to be named discussing non-public information.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
New Nike Sneakers Seem Inspired By Donkey Kong
Donkey Kong doesn’t wear shoes. This is a defining trait of Nintendo’s famous barrel-tossin’ ape. But that hasn’t stopped Nike from creating a new pair of sneakers that seem to be directly inspired by Donkey Kong and his popular platformers.
The Milky Way’s Black Hole Is Producing a Brilliant Light Show
NASA’s flagship space telescope captured flares from the disk of superheated material around the black hole, revealing the dynamic—and explosive—physics at our galaxy’s core.
My Favorite Amazon Deal of the Day: The Sonos Ace
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You’ve probably heard of Sonos smart speakers and soundbars. They’re one of the best in the market for audio quality and simple user experience. But unless you’re in the weeds of tech audio, you probably missed their debut in the headphone space with the Sonos Ace, which was released last summer. You can get the Sonos Ace for $349 (originally $449), the lowest price they’ve been according to price tracking tools.
The Sonos Ace are soft, comfortable, and adaptable to different head sizes, thanks to their plastic design. You actually get buttons to control the headphones, which I personally consider a huge plus. The battery life is impressive, with about 30 hours with either the Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) or Aware Mode settings active or about 40 hours with both of those off. The Bluetooth multipoint connectivity means you can connect up to two devices at once and switch seamlessly between them.
The headphones perform well, according to PCMag’s “excellent” review. The sound is balanced with an EQ adjuster in the app, and the ANC and Aware Mode are top-tier, competing with the best headphones in the market. Unfortunately, the Sonos Ace aren’t wifi-enabled, meaning you can’t stream media into them like you can with Sonos speakers. However, you can connect to Sonos speakers through Bluetooth and listen to your media that way (if you own Sonos speakers).
At their current price, the Sonos Ace are competitive with the best headphones for Apple users, the AirPods Max, and the best headphones for Android users, Sony’s WH-1000XM5. If you care about transparency mode or have Sonos speakers are home, the Sonos Ace is your best choice. Otherwise, consider the AirPods Max or the WH-1000XM5.
The New Game From The Makers Of Life Is Strange Is Off To An Excellent Start
I’ve finished the first half of Lost Records: Bloom & Rage, Don’t Nod’s latest supernatural teen drama, and it speaks to how well the game handles its dueling past and present storylines that even though I still don’t really know what the game is about, I’m nonetheless desperate to see what comes next. Don’t Nod hasn’t…
Meta just scheduled a generative AI conference called LlamaCon for April 29
Meta just announced its first-ever LlamaCon, a dev conference dedicated to generative AI. It’s scheduled for April 29. Why the llama-based naming convention? The company titled the event after its family of generative AI models.
Meta promises to “share the latest on our open source AI developments to help developers do what they do best: build amazing apps and products.” Beyond that vague description, we don’t know much. There’s no information regarding speakers or potential products being shown. We know that the company’s working on Llama 4, with an early 2025 release window, so we’ll most likely get a sizzle reel of some kind.
The company notes it’ll have more to share about LlamaCon “in the coming weeks.” Meta also says that “2025 is shaping up to be another banger” of a year. To that end, it has scheduled the next major Connect event for September 17. It promises plenty of reveals that should please “virtual and mixed reality developers, content creators, metaverse mavens and AI glasses enthusiasts.” Meta Connect 2024 gave us the Quest 3S and the fancy-pants Orion prototype AR glasses.
According to TechCrunch, Meta has been scrambling to figure out how AI rival DeepSeek has managed to create tech that rivals its own at a fraction of the development cost. The report suggests that DeepSeek’s upcoming models could outperform the aforementioned Llama 4. The company’s also currently embroiled in a lawsuit that accuses it of training Llama models on copyrighted book materials without permission.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/meta-just-scheduled-a-generative-ai-conference-called-llamacon-for-april-29-181351134.html?src=rss
27% of Job Listings For CFOs Now Mention AI
A new report released by Cisco finds that 97% of CEOs surveyed are planning AI integration. Similarly, 92% of companies recently surveyed by McKinsey plan to invest more in generative AI over the next three years. Fortune: To that end, many companies are seeking tech-savvy finance talent, according to a new report by software company Datarails. The researchers analyzed 6,000 job listings within the CFO’s office — CFO, controller, financial planning and analysis (FP&A), and accountant — advertised on job search websites including LinkedIn, Glassdoor, Indeed, Job2Careers, and ZipRecruiter.
Of the 1,000 job listings for CFOs in January 2025, 27% included AI in the job description. This compares to 8% mentions of AI in 1,000 CFO job listings at the same time last year. Take, for example, Peaks Healthcare Consulting which required a CFO candidate to “continuously learn and integrate AI to improve financial processes and decision making,” Datarails notes in the report. Regarding FP&A professionals, in January 2025, 35% of analyst roles mentioned AI competency as a requirement, compared to 14% in January 2024, according to the report.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Samsung’s Most Popular Foldable Phone Is About to Get More Affordable
The Galaxy Z Flip FE exists somewhere in the ether and will be priced lower than the foldables out now.
The Apple Watch Series 7 Is $250 Right Now
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If you like the idea of running errands or going for a jog without lugging your phone around, the Apple Watch Series 7 (GPS + Cellular) is down to $249.99 on Woot. That’s a $500 discount on its original $749 price tag, but the deal is only live for two days or until it sells out.
If you’re an Amazon Prime member, you get free standard shipping, while others will have to pay $6 (keep in mind that Woot won’t ship to Alaska, Hawaii, PO boxes, or APO addresses).
Now, if you’re wondering why you should care about the cellular version over the regular GPS model, it’s because it doesn’t need to be tethered to your iPhone to have a connection. You can take calls, reply to messages, stream Apple Music, and use Apple Pay without having your phone nearby. That’s especially useful if you like to run without your phone or leave it behind while at the gym.
PCMag called the Series 7 the “Best Smartwatch of the Year 2021” and gave it an Editor’s Choice award when it launched, thanks to its larger display (meaning bigger buttons, a full QWERTY keyboard for texting, and an easier-to-read interface) and fast charging capabilities, going from 0 to 80% in about 45 minutes (helpful if you use sleep tracking and don’t want to take it off for long). Of course, it’s a couple of years old at this point (the Series 10 is the most recent generation), but the Series 7 is still a solid option if you don’t care about having the absolutely newest tech available.
The Series 7 also comes with an IP6X and WR50 rating, offering strong dust resistance for outdoor workouts and water resistance up to 50 meters (so you can wear it in the shower or take it poolside without worry). Additionally, this model comes with Apple’s limited one-year hardware warranty, which is a nice safety net.
Like other Apple Watches, the Series 7 has a full set of health features including heart rate monitoring, ECG, blood oxygen tracking, always-on altimeter, and sleep tracking, among others. It also keeps an eye on your well-being, notifying you if it detects potentially harmful noise levels or irregular heart rhythms, plus fall detection—automatically dialing for help if you take a hard fall and don’t respond. That said, its battery life is around 18 hours, so you’ll need to charge it regularly, which isn’t great, but that’s the Apple Watch standard. If you want something that lasts multiple days, the Ultra models are better, but they cost a lot more.
Watch The Substance Director Coralie Fargeat’s Homemade Star Wars Fan Film
Made when the Oscar nominee was just 17, it combines Star Wars toys, music, and lots of hard work.
ADLINK Introduces OSM MTK510 Featuring MediaTek Genio 510 COM with Yocto Linux Compatibility
ADLINK Technology Inc. has introduced the OSM-MTK510, a compact and rugged computer-on-module based on the MediaTek Genio 510 platform. Designed for efficiency, the OSM-MTK510 supports AI workloads while maintaining power efficiency and long-term availability for industrial and embedded applications.
OpenAI board considers special voting powers to prevent Elon Musk takeover
OpenAI is considering granting new voting rights to its nonprofit board in a move that could help it fight an unsolicited takeover bid from Elon Musk, the Financial Times reported last night. Citing people familiar with the discussions, the FT wrote that CEO “Sam Altman and other board members are weighing a range of new governance mechanisms after OpenAI converts into a more conventional for-profit company.”
“Giving the nonprofit’s board outsized voting power would ensure it retain[s] control of the restructured company and [is] able to over-rule other investors including existing backers such as Microsoft and SoftBank,” the FT wrote. “While no firm decisions have been made, special voting rights would also ensure OpenAI can fight off hostile bids from outsiders such as Musk.”
We contacted OpenAI about the report and will update this article if it provides any comment.
Why the Apple TV App Is Better on Android Than iPhone
After five long years, Apple TV has made it to Android phones and tablets, bringing a polished and Apple-like interface to every Android device out there. You can finally binge-watch Severance on your Samsung smartphone (as you very much should), and if you’re like me, you might actually prefer it there than on iPhone.
The Apple TV app for Android, it turns out, is a stripped down version of the TV app from iPhone and iPad, not including content from partner streaming services or the ability to buy or rent movies. But it’s this stripped down approach that actually makes the Android app better than the iPhone counterpart, at least in my opinion. In the language of Dieter Rams, “good design is as little design as possible”.
When you open the Apple TV app on Android, the Apple TV+ tab is the default option, showing your Apple TV+ queue and top TV shows and movies right up top. The only other content option is Apple’s MLS sports streaming add-on, which gets its own distinct tab, too.
On the iPhone and iPad, meanwhile, the TV app is actually much bigger than just Apple TV+. It carries subscription add-ons for different services like Disney+, Prime Video, Starz, Hulu, Peacock, and more. Plus, you can also use the app to rent or buy movies. This means that when you open the Apple TV app, you might be greeted by a banner for a new movie you’ve been wanting to see, thinking it’s been added to Apple TV+ for free. However, clicking in will greet you with a big buy button, instead.
Because Apple TV’s interface is incredibly simple and there’s no sections dividing up services (save for Apple’s own), that can get confusing fast.
Credit: Khamosh Pathak
Compare that to Android, where the Apple TV app still carries the same design language, same polished interface, and the same minimal media player, but just feels better to use because there are no distractions and no hoops to jump through.
On the iPhone or iPad app, I’ve come to dread the extra step of navigating to the dedicated Apple TV+ tab before I look for streaming content. On Android, that’s already the default. Android also has a dedicated Downloads tab, while on the iOS and iPadOS app, you first have to switch to the Library tab to see your Downloads. Everything takes an extra step on the iPhone app.
I sincerely hope that Apple is inspired by this feedback and works on making the iPhone app simpler, but given the nature of the product and all the things that the app does, it might be better to make the Apple TV+ app a separate entity by itself, kind of like the Apple TV app on Android.
The Apple TV app on Android comes with a one-week free trial for Apple TV+, and then it’s the same $9.99/month subscription as elsewhere. While the app is quite feature-rich, it does lack the Cast feature, so you can’t just stream content to a TV via your Android smartphone. Aside from that, though, everything I need is here, including my watch list, offline downloads and picture-in-picture.