According to the Financial Times, Fidelity Investments is in advanced stages of developing its own stablecoin. Binance reports: The Boston-based financial services giant plans for the token to serve as a form of digital cash, according to the report, which cites two people close to the matter. The token would form part of company’s strategy to enter the tokenized government bonds market. Stablecoins are a cryptocurrency whose value is pegged to a real-world asset such as the U.S. dollar or gold. They provide a convenient way for crypto traders to preserve their fiat value without having to cash out of the market.
The news emerges just days after Fidelity filed paperwork to register a blockchain-based version of its U.S. dollar money market fund. The company seeks to register an “OnChain” share class of its Treasury Digital Fund (FYHXX), which holds cash and U.S. Treasury securities and is available only to Fidelity’s hedge fund and institutional clients. A Fidelity stablecoin could fill the role of cash in this fund. The report comes a day after World Liberty Financial, a crypto venture backed by Donald Trump and his family, launched a U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoin called USD1.
NVIDIA has published new Vulkan beta driver builds for Windows and Linux that introduce VK_KHR_shader_bfloat16 for BFloat16 “BF16” support within shaders…
Thoughtful and considered … even if it is based on an American distroEU OS is a proposal for an immutable KDE-based Linux distribution with a Windows-like desktop, designed for use in European public-sector organizations.…
An anonymous reader quotes a report from ZDNet, written by Steven Vaughan-Nichols: Despite the minor delay, Linux 6.14 arrives packed with cutting-edge features and improvements to power upcoming Linux distributions, such as the forthcoming Ubuntu 25.04 and Fedora 42. The big news for desktop users is the improved NTSYNC driver, especially those who like to play Windows games or run Windows programs on Linux. This driver is designed to emulate Windows NT synchronization primitives. What that feature means for you and me is that it will significantly improve the performance of Windows programs running on Wine and Steam Play. […] Gamers always want the best possible graphics performance, so they’ll also be happy to see that Linux now supports recently launched AMD RDNA 4 graphics cards. This approach includes support for the AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT and RX 9070 graphics cards. Combine this support with the recently improved open-source RADV driver and AMD gamers should see the best speed yet on their gaming rigs.
Of course, the release is not just for gamers. Linux 6.14 also includes several AMD and Intel processor enhancements. These boosts focus on power management, thermal control, and compute performance optimizations. These updates are expected to improve overall system efficiency and performance. This release also comes with the AMDXDNA driver, which provides official support for AMD’s neural processing units based on the XDNA architecture. This integration enables efficient execution of AI workloads, such as convolutional neural networks and large language models, directly on supported AMD hardware. While Rust has faced some difficulties in recent months in Linux, more Rust programming language abstractions have been integrated into the kernel, laying the groundwork for future drivers written in Rust. […] Besides drivers, Miguel Ojeda, Rust for Linux’s lead developer, said recently that the introduction of the macro for smart pointers with Rust 1.84: derive(CoercePointee) is an “important milestone on the way to building a kernel that only uses stable Rust functions.” This approach will also make integrating C and Rust code easier. We’re getting much closer to Rust being grafted into Linux’s tree.
In addition, Linux 6.14 supports Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 8 Elite mobile processor, enhancing performance and stability for devices powered by this chipset. That support means you can expect to see much faster Android-based smartphones later this year. This release includes a patch for the so-called GhostWrite vulnerability, which can be used to root some RISC-V processors. This fix will block such attacks. Additionally, Linux 6.14 includes improvements for the copy-on-write Btrfs file system/logical volume manager. These primarily read-balancing methods offer flexibility for different RAID hardware configurations and workloads. Additionally, support for uncached buffered I/O optimizes memory usage on systems with fast storage devices. Linux 6.14 is available for download here.
YouTube Shorts has introduced a change that brings analytics for its bite-sized video option into closer parity with rival services TikTok and Instagram. The video platform will remove the minimum play time requirement it previously had for a user watching a clip to count as a view.
Beginning March 31, a “view” will be added any time a YouTube Short is played or replayed. This will likely mean that creators will see higher view counts after the change takes place. YouTube will continue to track “engaged views,” which measure the number of times a clip was played “for a certain number of seconds.” YouTube clarified that the shift would not impact Creator earnings or their eligibility for the YouTube Partner Program; both will continue to be assessed by the engaged view metric.
Both Instagram and TikTok have defined a “view” as the number of times a video starts playing, although those platforms also offer metrics for tracking time spent watching a piece of content. Considering YouTube Shorts, Instagram and TikTok have each claimed upwards of a billion monthly users, it makes sense that they count views similarly so that creators can better assess how many of those people they are reaching across the services.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/youtube-is-changing-how-it-calculates-views-for-shorts-233058880.html?src=rss
Fortune reports that over 4 million Gen Zers are currently not in education, employment, or training (NEET), with experts blaming a broken educational system and “worthless degrees” for failing to deliver on promises of career readiness. From the report: While some Gen Zers may fall into this category because they are taking care of a family member, many have become frozen out of the increasingly tough job market where white-collar jobs are becoming seemingly out of reach. In the U.S., this translates to an estimated over 4.3 million young people not in school or work. Across the pond in the U.K., the situation is also only getting worse, with the number of NEET young people rising by over 100,000 in the last year alone.
A British podcaster went so far as to call the situation a “catastrophe” — and cast a broad-stroke blame on the education system. “In many cases, young people have been sent off to universities for worthless degrees which have produced nothing for them at all,” the political commentator, journalist and author, Peter Hitchens slammed colleges last week. “And they would be much better off if they apprenticed to plumbers or electricians, they would be able to look forward to a much more abundant and satisfying life.” With millions of Gen Zers waking up each day feeling left behind, there needs to be a “wake-up call” that includes educational and workplace partners stepping up, Jeff Bulanda, vice president at Jobs for the Future, tells Fortune.
Ridley’s new gravel bike, the Ignite GTX, is claimed to bridge the gap between mountain bikes and gravel. It’s a bike designed for the toughest races, even able to make the leap into ultra-distance mountain bike events according to Ridley.
The Ignite GTX has the biggest tyre clearance we’ve seen on a gravel bike to date – 2.3in, or 58mm.
Ridley’s designers say they’d noticed a shift towards some privateer riders using home-built drop-bar equipped mountain bikes for more technical gravel races, and some even adopting them for marathon mountain bike events.
Meanwhile, professional athletes were sticking to either gravel bikes or mountain bikes because that’s all that was available to them.
Extreme geometry
The Ridley Ignite GTX has MTB-based geometry. Ridley
Ridley’s answer to that conundrum is the Ignite GTX. The new bike is based on Ridley’s high-performance Ignite SLX hardtail mountain bike. It has what Ridley describes as ‘pure mountain bike geometry’.
The Ignite GTX, with its optional 100mm-travel mountain bike fork. Ridley
The Ignite GTX gets a slacker 70-degree head angle than even Ridley’s rough-stuff-ready Kanzo Adventure. The wheelbase measures 1,100mm, with a long reach of 418mm and a 614mm stack (size large).
The Ignite GTX certainly looks very different from the average gravel bike. Ridley
At the rear, the Ignite GTX uses Ridley’s flex-stays, employing a carbon construction that enables the flex to smooth out vibrations from rougher surfaces.
The Ignite GTX is intended for extreme terrain, according to Ridley. The wheel choice is a mountain bike 29-inch, with a huge maximum tyre clearance of 2.3in (58mm). This makes it the gravel bike with the largest tyre clearances we’ve seen to date, on trend for the recent shift to larger tyres in gravel racing.
Is Ridley becoming the European gravel specialist? It has the ASTR, Invenio, Kanzo Fast, Kanzo Adventure, Kanzo A, Grifn RS, Kalazy and Grifn Gravel. Adding the Ignite GTX makes for an eight-model line-up, not counting electric gravel bikes.
Ridley Ignite GTX spec options
Ritchey’s super-shallow and very wide VentureMax bar comes as standard on the Ignite GTX. Ridley
The Ignite GTX has four options: SRAM Rival 1, SRAM Apex 1, SRAM Rival-GX AXS mullet setup and Shimano GRX800 1×12 in a mullet setup.
The Ignite GTX is available with either a suspension fork with 100mm of travel or a rigid carbon fork.
All models come with Ritchey’s VentureMax bar, with a very wide 24-degree flare and super-shallow drop. Prices range from £2,699 / €2,799 for SRAM Apex 1×11 with a RockShox Judy fork while pricing for the range-topping SRAM Rival/GX AXS with RockShox SID SL Select fork had not been confirmed at the time of writing.
Utah Governor Spencer Cox has signed the App Store Accountability Act into law, making it the first state to require that app store makers verify their users’ ages. Under this law, people in Utah will need to be over age 18 to make a new account with an app store; underage users will either need to link their account to a parent’s so that the adult can give permission for the child to use certain apps.
The legislation is intended to protect children and teens, according to bill sponsor Todd Weiler, a Republican state senator. However, it has also raised questions about privacy and where the burden of responsibility falls to ensure that underage users don’t see inappropriate content. Meta, Snap and X have supported the measure. “We applaud Governor Cox and the State of Utah for being the first in the nation to empower parents and users with greater control over teen app downloads, and urge other states to consider this groundbreaking approach,” the three companies said in a joint statement Wednesday. “This approach spares users from repeatedly submitting personal information to countless individual apps and online services.”
Google, which runs the Play Store, had opposed the bill, and called on the governor to veto the measure. We’ve reached out to Apple and Google for comment now that the bill has been signed into law.
As it stands, the App Store Accountability Act is slated to take effect on May 7, but it seems likely that it will face legal challenges. Digital privacy groups have opposed the law and others like it, noting security concerns about how sensitive age verification data will be used or protected. Other state laws requiring online services to confirm users’ ages have also prompted lawsuits.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/utah-just-became-the-first-state-in-the-country-to-pass-an-age-verification-law-for-app-stores-225846117.html?src=rss
The U.S. has added 80 entities to its export blacklist to prevent China from acquiring advanced American chips for military development, including AI, quantum tech, and hypersonic weapons. The Verge reports: More than 50 of the new entities added to the list are based in China, with others located in Iran, Taiwan, Pakistan, South Africa, and the United Arab Emirates. BIS says the restrictions have been applied to entities that acted “contrary to US national security and foreign policy,” and are intended to hinder China’s ability to develop high-performance computing capabilities, quantum technologies, advanced artificial intelligence, and hypersonic weapons.
Six of the newly blacklisted entities are subsidiaries of Inspur Group — China’s leading cloud computing service provider and a major customer for US chip makers such as Nvidia, AMD, and Intel — which BIS alleges had contributed to projects developing supercomputers for the Chinese military. The Beijing Academy of Artificial Intelligence is another addition to the list, which has criticized its inclusion. “American technology should never be used against the American people,” said Jeffrey Kessler, Under Secretary of Commerce for Industry and Security. “BIS is sending a clear, resounding message that the Trump administration will work tirelessly to safeguard our national security by preventing U.S. technologies and goods from being misused for high performance computing, hypersonic missiles, military aircraft training, and UAVs that threaten our national security.”
Meta canceled a System Shock 2 VR port, alongside “a ton of projects”, the remaster studio head says, but development could be “restarted” in the future.
A 25th anniversary remaster of the cult classic 1999 PC action role-playing survival game is set to launch in June on Steam, PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch. But according to a Bluesky post from the head of the studio behind the remaster, Stephen Kick, a VR version “for Oculus” was canceled.
We were originally developing the VR version for Oculus, but Facebook cancelled a ton of projects, which unfortunately included SS2VR. We’ve discussed restarting dev and if we do it’ll be a future patch or standalone release. We’ll have to wait and see how the 25th Anniversary remaster is received!
We first heard about the VR version of the remaster of System Shock 2 back in 2021, and it was set to have full co-op multiplayer support, including, cross-play with PC. But by 2022 it was “a lower priority” for the studio, and sometime between now and then it was canceled.
Kick’s post doesn’t make clear whether this “Oculus” version was for PC VR (Oculus Rift / Quest Link) or for Quest standalone, but we’ve reached out for clarification on this. We’ve also reached out to Meta in case the company has any context to add here.
He does however state that the studio has “discussed restarting dev”, saying that if they do so it’ll be a future patch or standalone release. “We’ll have to wait and see how the 25th Anniversary remaster is received!”, Kick states, suggesting its reception will determine whether a VR port happens now.
An anonymous reader shares a report: After years of decline, the number of applications to the country’s two-year MBA programs rebounded in 2024 — rising 19%, according to a survey by the Graduate Management Admission Council. The pandemic saw a blossoming of new ways to deliver an MBA, but tradition has reasserted itself: The biggest growth last year was in conventional two-year and part-time programs.
As in recent years, the great majority of student demand came from overseas, but applications from the US rose as well. While the two-year class graduating this spring included record levels of international students at many institutions, most of the top 20 schools as ranked by Bloomberg Businessweek welcomed classes last fall with a reduced international presence. Given the Trump administration’s hostility to immigration, the graduating class of 2025 could prove to be the high-water mark for international MBA students in the US for at least the near future.
Docker is an essential tool for developers and system administrators working with containerized applications. This guide provides a comprehensive overview of Docker’s basic commands on Linux, covering everything from creating and managing containers to troubleshooting common issues.
Three weeks ago, NASA revealed that a shipping container protecting a Cygnus spacecraft sustained “damage” while traveling to the launch site in Florida.
Built by Northrop Grumman, Cygnus is one of two Western spacecraft currently capable of delivering food, water, experiments, and other supplies to the International Space Station. This particular Cygnus mission, NG-22, had been scheduled for June. As part of its statement in early March, the space agency said it was evaluating the NG-22 Cygnus cargo supply mission along with Northrop.
On Wednesday, after a query from Ars Technica, the space agency acknowledged that the Cygnus spacecraft designated for NG-22 is too damaged to fly, at least in the near term.
VMware has sued industrial giant AG Siemens’s US operations for alleged use of unlicensed software and accused it of changing its story negotiations. From a report: The case was filed last Friday in the US District Court for the District Delaware. VMware’s complaint [PDF] alleges that Siemens AG’s US operations used more VMware software that it had licensed. Siemens’s use of VMware became contentious when it tried to arrange extended support for some products.
On September 9, 2024, Siemens apparently produced a list of the VMware software it used and “demanded that VMware accept a purchase order to provide maintenance and support services for the listed products.” The complaint states that list mentioned VMware deployments that “far exceeded the number of licenses it [Siemens] had actually purchased.”
In case you missed it, Marvel just wrapped up an hours-long stream announcing the cast for Avengers: Doomsday. The movie is the first of two big crossover movies bringing together heroes from across the MCU, including the Fantastic Four and, surprisingly, a ton of the X-Men. However, there are also some surprising…
If you are familiar with generating images with AI models, it’s possible you already know that these models sometimes lack the ability to create images that reflect specific directions given in your prompt. Well, this might be changing as Open AI has announced a significant upgrade to ChatGPT’s image-generating capabilities, which will help
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If you’ve been holding off on upgrading your system because of the high cost of a new Windows license, this deal on Microsoft Windows 11 Home might be worth your while. StackSocial is offering a Windows 11 Home lifetime access for just $17.97 for a limited time—down from the original $199 price tag, and way cheaper than the $139 it’s listed for at the Microsoft Store. But before you get too excited, there are a few important things to know. This version is meant for PCs that don’t already have a Windows 11 license and meet all of Microsoft’s system requirements (which aren’t exactly forgiving). If your current PC runs Windows 10 but couldn’t get the free upgrade via Windows Update, odds are this version won’t work for you either. It’s also not for those running Pro editions—you can’t use this to downgrade or cross over.
Assuming your system checks out, Windows 11 Home does bring in a bunch of upgrades that make everyday use more efficient and, honestly, nicer to look at. The redesigned interface is cleaner and easier to navigate, and features like Snap layouts and virtual desktops help keep your workflow organized. If you constantly juggle browser tabs, documents, and random apps simultaneously, these tools can reduce the chaos. There’s also Microsoft Teams baked right into the taskbar, which is convenient if you use it often, though not necessarily a game-changer if you’re already tied to Zoom or Slack. On the security side, there’s support for TPM 2.0 and biometric logins—great if you want more than just a password standing between your data and a stranger.
Gamers and creatives might appreciate the inclusion of DirectX 12 Ultimate support, which pushes better graphics if you’ve got the hardware to match. This is a one-device, one-time activation key, so once you redeem it (which you need to do within 30 days), that’s the machine it lives on. There’s no hopping around between systems later. Additionally, this license is for Windows 11 Home only—not the Pro version—so if you’re already running Windows 10 Pro, this won’t do you any good. And just to be clear, it won’t upgrade or include Microsoft Office. It’ll run Office just fine if you already have it, but don’t expect any MSO upgrades to come bundled in. That said, it’s hard to argue with under twenty bucks for a full OS license that usually runs ten times that.
For many fans, the PlayStation 4 years were defined by blockbuster single-player GOTY contenders like God of War and Spider-Man. Then the PS5 arrived in 2020 and Sony turned its attention to live-service gaming with the hopes of capturing a piece of the growing multiplayer market. Former executive Shawn Layden, who…
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Android Authority: No matter the manufacturer, every Android phone has one thing in common: its software base. Manufacturers can heavily customize the look and feel of the Android OS they ship on their Android devices, but under the hood, the core system functionality is derived from the same open-source foundation: the Android Open Source Project. After over 16 years, Google is making big changes to how it develops the open source version of Android in an effort to streamline its development. […] Beginning next week, all Android development will occur within Google’s internal branches, and the source code for changes will only be released when Google publishes a new branch containing those changes. As this is already the practice for most Android component changes, Google is simply consolidating its development efforts into a single branch.
This change will have minimal impact on regular users. While it streamlines Android OS development for Google, potentially affecting the speed of new version development and bug reduction, the overall effect will likely be imperceptible. Therefore, don’t expect this change to accelerate OS updates for your phone. This change will also have minimal impact on most developers. App developers are unaffected, as it pertains only to platform development. Platform developers, including those who build custom ROMs, will largely also see little change, since they typically base their work on specific tags or release branches, not the main AOSP branch. Similarly, companies that release forked AOSP products rarely use the main AOSP branch due to its inherent instability.
External developers who enjoy reading or contributing to AOSP will likely be dismayed by this news, as it reduces their insight into Google’s development efforts. Without a GMS license, contributing to Android OS development becomes more challenging, as the available code will consistently lag behind by weeks or months. This news will also make it more challenging for some developers to keep up with new Android platform changes, as they’ll no longer be able to track changes in AOSP. For reporters, this change means less access to potentially revealing information, as AOSP patches often provide insights into Google’s development plans. […] Google will share more details about this change when it announces it later this week. If you’re interested in learning more, be sure to keep an eye out for the announcement and new documentation on source.android.com. Android Authority’s Mishaal Rahman says Google is “committed to publishing Android’s source code, so this change doesn’t mean that Android is becoming closed-source.”
“What will change is the frequency of public source code releases for specific Android components,” says Rahman. “Some components like the build system, update engine, Bluetooth stack, Virtualization framework, and SELinux configuration are currently AOSP-first, meaning they’re developed fully in public. Most Android components like the core OS framework are primarily developed internally, although some features, such as the unlocked-only storage area API, are still developed within AOSP.”
