Opening Apple’s Maps app just for directions may look a little different in the near future. According to Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman, Apple is planning to introduce ads to Maps as soon as next year. While it won’t be as annoying as unskippable YouTube ads, Apple wants to offer better visibility on Maps to restaurants and businesses that are willing to pay.

When looking for a new restaurant or relevant business, you may already be used to seeing ads on Google Maps or Yelp that highlight certain establishments. However, Gurman said that Apple is planning to lean on AI for better search results and offer a better interface than Google Maps. The introduction of ads across Apple’s iOS ecosystem shouldn’t be surprising since Gurman previously reported Apple’s interest back in 2022. On top of that, Apple already offers ad slots within the App Store where developers can pay to appear in a more visible position for user searches. Beyond Maps, Apple could be looking at infusing ads into its News, Books, Podcasts and other apps to generate more revenue.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/apple-is-reportedly-getting-ready-to-introduce-ads-to-its-maps-app-170654072.html?src=rss

“Around tables cluttered with dice, maps and character sheets, players are doing far more than playing,” writes Phys.org. It’s what sociologists call serious leisure —
“a hobby that demands skill, commitment and personal fulfillment,” according to an associate professor/program director for Florida International University’s Rehabilitation and Recreational Therapy Program:

To understand what makes D&D more than just a pastime, [associate professor Emily Messina] studies how games like this promote identity-building and connection… Beyond personal expression, Messina says the social and emotional benefits of D&D reflect the very traits that make serious leisure valuable: the sense of identity, the relationships built through shared experiences and the continued connection with the same group of people over time… The game can also provide structure and purpose for people managing mental illness who might not be able to hold a full-time job because of their symptoms. The game gives them structure versus filling their day with binge streaming…

Activities such as D&D can be used by young children as a reward structure or with older adults, such as retirees, to help provide a sense of purpose and daily rhythm. “Post retirement is one of the most dangerous points in an adult’s life,” she said. “They lose that sense of structure and possibly their social connection.” Building structure through leisure pursuits after retirement has been shown to help maintain physical fitness, social interaction, cognitive processing and attention span and decrease depression. “The idea of structure and reward with desired pursuit can work for all ages,” Messina said.

The research was published in Leisure Studies.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The iterative upgrades for iPads may not be enticing enough to warrant a new purchase every year, but Apple may have a particularly cool upgrade to convince users to shell out for the next iPad Pro. According to Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman, Apple is planning to include a vapor chamber for the upcoming iPad Pro that’s due to ship with the M6 chip.

We’ve already seen the vapor chamber included in the iPhone 17 Pro models, helping to boost cooling and performance. While an iPad’s larger surface area makes for greater heat dissipation than an iPhone, this cooling system should make the tablet more capable when it comes to demanding tasks, like gaming, video editing or AI apps. Gurman also predicts that Apple could market the vapor chamber cooling as another way to differentiate between the iPad models. 

Apple previously improved the cooling performance of iPad Pros with the M4 generation, which included a new copper heat sink. With the vapor chamber, Apple is borrowing a concept already found in other smartphones from Samsung and Google. Samsung has even included this style of liquid cooling in its Galaxy Tab S9, which came out in 2023. As for the first potential iPad Pro with a vapor chamber, Gurman said he expects Apple to follow its typical 18-month release schedule, meaning the M6 iPad Pro with improved heat performance could come out sometime in 2027.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/tablets/the-next-ipad-pro-could-be-the-first-to-get-vapor-chamber-cooling-160536540.html?src=rss

Data centers were typically “hulking, chilly buildings lined with stacks of computing gear and bundles of wiring,” writes the Washington Post. But “AI experts say that the hubs for computers that power AI are different from the data centers that deliver your Netflix movies and Uber rides. They use a different mix of computer chips, cost a lot more and need a lot more energy.

“The question is whether it’s necessary and illuminating to rebrand AI-specialized data centers, or if calling them ‘AI factories’ is just marketing hogwash.”

The AI computer chip company Nvidia seems to have originated the use of “AI factories.” CEO Jensen Huang has said that the term is apt because similar to industrial factories, AI factories take in raw materials to produce a product… The term is spreading. Sam Altman, CEO of ChatGPT parent company OpenAI, recently said that he wants a “factory” to regularly produce more building blocks for AI. Crusoe, a start-up that’s erecting a mammoth “Stargate” data center in Texas, calls itself the “AI factory company.” The prime minister of Bulgaria recently touted an “AI factory” in his country…

Alex Hanna, director of research at the Distributed AI Research Institute and co-author the book, “The AI Con,” had a more pessimistic view of the term “AI factories.” She said that it’s a way to deflect the negative connotations of data centers. Some people and politicians blame power-hungry computing hubs for driving up residential electric bills, spewing pollution, draining drinking water and producing few permanent jobs.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Reason.com explores the fortunes of Aurora Innovation, the first company to put heavy-duty commercial self-driving trucks on public roads (and hopes to expand routes to El Paso, Texas, and Phoenix by the end of the year):

An obscure federal rule is slowing the self-driving revolution. When trucks break down, operators are required to place reflective warning cones and road flares around the truck to warn other motorists. The regulations areexacting: Within 10 minutes of stopping, three warning signals must be set in specific locations around the truck. Auroraaskedthe federal Department of Transportation (DOT) to allow warning beacons to be fixed to the truck itself — and activated when a truck becomes disabled. The warning beacons would face both forward and backward, would be more visibleâthan cones (particularly at night), and wouldn’t burn out like road flares. Drivers of nonautonomous vehicles could also benefit from that rule change, as they would no longer have to walk into traffic to place the required safety signals.

In December 2024, however, the Transportation Department denied Aurora’s request for an exemption to the existing rules, even though regulatorsadmittedin theFederal Registerthat no evidence indicated the truck-mounted beacons would be less safe. Such a study is now underway, but it’s unclear how long it will take to draw any conclusions.

The article notes that Aurora has now filed a lawsuit in federal court that seeks to overturn the Transportation Department’s denial…

Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader schwit1 for sharing the article.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Google is rolling out out a new feature for Gemini’s Canvas, the free interactive workspace inside the AI chatbot’s app, meant for students and employees who need to create presentations. Gemini is now capable of generating slides with just a prompt, though users can also upload files like documents, spreadsheets and research papers if they want a presentation based on a specific source. If the source doesn’t matter, users can write a prompt, such as “Upload any source to create a presentation on [a specific topic],” for instance. But if the source is essential, they can upload the file first and then ask Gemini to create the presentation for them. 

The resulting decks already have a theme and images attached with the text. Users will be able to export them straight from the Gemini app into Google Slides, though, and will still be able to edit and refine the decks as needed or work on it in collaboration with a teammate. The capability is now making its way to both personal and Workspace accounts.

Google launched Canvas in March for people to use when they want to share their writing or code to Gemini for editing. If users put in code or prompts for projects like apps, web pages and infographics, Canvas will be able to show them a visual representation of their design. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/googles-gemini-will-now-generate-presentations-for-you-010040637.html?src=rss

“Japan’s new HTV-X cargo spacecraft launched on its first-ever mission to the International Space Station on Saturday,” reports Space.com:

The robotic HTV-X lifted off atop an H3 rocket from Japan’s Tanegashima Space Center at 8 p.m. EDT (0000 GMT and 9 a.m local Japan time on October 26). It is expected to arrive at the station for its capture and berthing on Wednesday (Oct. 29) at about 11:50 a.m. EDT (1550 GMT)…

The HTV-X’s potential uses also extend beyond the ISS, according to JAXA. The agency envisions it aiding “post-ISS human space activities in low Earth orbit” as well as possibly flying cargo to Gateway, the space station NASA may build in lunar orbit as part of its Artemis program.

HTV-X’s debut increases the stable of ISS cargo craft by one-third. The currently operational freighters are Russia’s Progress vehicle and Cygnus and Dragon, spacecraft built by the American companies Northrop Grumman and SpaceX, respectively. Only Dragon is reusable; the others (including HTV-X) are designed to burn up in Earth’s atmosphere when their missions are over.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

25 years ago today on Slashdot…

Hemos linked to a site called Joystick101 describing the
crowd camping out to buy the limited number of just-released PlayStation 2 consoles (and games). “500,000 lucky members of the American gaming public are sneaking a few minutes of playing Madden 2001, Tekken, or Ridge Racer V before school or work…” wrote Joystick101. That same day CmdrTaco posted reports PS2s were selling for over $1,000 on eBay. And then Timothy updated that post to note someone saw one selling for $5,000.

But there was a third PS2 link posted on October 26, 2000… Hemos wrote a post titled “The PS2 — A Betamax In the Making?” — linking to an article by
Mark Pesce (co-inventor of VRML and, in 1993, an Apple consulting engineer). “Microsoft promises Xbox will deliver ten times the performance of the PS2,” Pesce wrote, noting Microsoft had partnered with Intel and “upstart video-chip developer Nvidia”:

The strangest thing about this battle of giants is that Microsoft has become a champion of open standards, encouraging developers to write Xbox titles without requiring them to pay any licensing fees. In comparison, Sony charges a minimum of $25,000 for access to the documentation and technology of the PlayStation2, plus a hefty license fee on every game sold. In the video-game industry, the Big Three — Sony, Nintendo, and Sega — sell the hardware at a loss (the PS2 costs nearly the $300 it will retail for) and recover their investment in the stiff licensing fees paid by game developers for the “key” that allows their software to work on Sony’s platform…

Having committed an astounding $500 million to market the Xbox next Christmas, it’s clear that Microsoft doesn’t mind taking a short-term loss to ensure an eventual win. If Sony’s not careful, this could turn into “Betamax, the Sequel.” Twenty years ago, Sony tightly controlled the titles made available for its technically superior videocassette player — specifically, no adult content — and found themselves quickly locked out of an incredibly lucrative market for adult and family content. If Sony keeps a tight grip on the PS2, they may actually help Microsoft create the new VHS. But even if Sony loses this round (and no one wants to wager which way this battle will turn), they’ve already set their sights on the PlayStation3, to be released five years from now. Sony promises it will be a thousand times faster than the PS2.

Ironically, Pesce’s warning about possible threats to the PS2’s longevity was published by online magazine Feed– which seven months later went out of business.

And this week it was announced that even Microsoft’s Halo Campaign Evolved will now be coming to PlayStation 5, with Slashdot publishing six PlayStation-related stories in just the last three months in 2025.
Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader crunchy_one for suggesting a “25 Years Ago” Slashdot post..

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Critics question why basic flaws like buffer overflows, command injections, and SQL injections are “being exploited remain prevalent in mission-critical codebases maintained by companies whose core business is cybersecurity,” writes CSO Online. Benjamin Harris, CEO of cybersecurity/penetration testing firm watchTowr tells them that “these are vulnerability classes from the 1990s, and security controls to prevent or identify them have existed for a long time. There is really no excuse.”

Enterprises have long relied on firewalls, routers, VPN servers, and email gateways to protect their networks from attacks. Increasingly, however, these network edge devices are becoming security liabilities themselves… Google’s Threat Intelligence Group tracked 75 exploited zero-day vulnerabilities in 2024. Nearly one in three targeted network and security appliances, a strikingly high rate given the range of IT systems attackers could choose to exploit. That trend has continued this year, with similar numbers in the first 10 months of 2025, targeting vendors such as Citrix NetScaler, Ivanti, Fortinet, Palo Alto Networks, Cisco, SonicWall, and Juniper. Network edge devices are attractive targets because they are remotely accessible, fall outside endpoint protection monitoring, contain privileged credentials for lateral movement, and are not integrated into centralized logging solutions…

[R]esearchers have reported vulnerabilities in these systems for over a decade with little attacker interest beyond isolated incidents. That shifted over the past few years with a rapid surge in attacks, making compromised network edge devices one of the top initial access vectors into enterprise networks for state-affiliated cyberespionage groups and ransomware gangs. The COVID-19 pandemic contributed to this shift, as organizations rapidly expanded remote access capabilities by deploying more VPN gateways, firewalls, and secure web and email gateways to accommodate work-from-home mandates. The declining success rate of phishing is another factor… “It is now easier to find a 1990s-tier vulnerability in a border device where Endpoint Detection and Response typically isn’t deployed, exploit that, and then pivot from there” [says watchTowr CEL Harris]…

Harris of watchTowr doesn’t want to minimize the engineering effort it takes to build a secure system. But he feels many of the vulnerabilities discovered in the past two years should have been caught with automatic code analysis tools or code reviews, given how basic they have been. Some VPN flaws were “trivial to the point of embarrassing for the vendor,” he says, while even the complex ones should have been caught by any organization seriously investing in product security… Another problem? These appliances have a lot of legacy code, some that is 10 years or older.

Attackers may need to chain together multiple hard-to-find vulnerabilities across multiple components, the article acknowleges. And “It’s also possible that attack campaigns against network-edge devices are becoming more visible to security teams because they are looking into what’s happening on these appliances more than they did in the past… ”

The article ends with reactions from several vendors of network edge security devices.

Thanks to Slashdot reader snydeq for sharing the article.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.