Posted by BeauHD from Slashdot
From the case-closed department: Fubo has agreed to pay $3.4 million to settle a class-action lawsuit (PDF) accusing it of illegally sharing usersâ(TM) personally identifiable information and video viewing history with advertisers without consent, allegedly violating the Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA). Ars Technica reports: As reported by Cord Cutters News this week, instead of going to trial, Fubo reached a settlement agreement [PDF] that allows people who used Fubo before May 29, which is when Fubo last updated its privacy policy, to receive part of a $3.4 million settlement. The settlement agreement received preliminary approval on May 29, and users recently started receiving notice of their potential entitlement to some of the settlement. They have until September 12 to submit claims. Fubo said in a statement: "We deny the allegations in the putative class lawsuit and specifically deny that we have engaged in any wrongdoing whatsoever. Fubo has nonetheless chosen to pursue a settlement for this matter in order to avoid the uncertainty and expense of litigation. We look forward to putting this matter behind us."
Posted by BeauHD from Slashdot
From the easier-to-read department: Following a week of X and YouTube complaints, Apple has further reduced the transparency of its Liquid Glass design in the latest iOS 26 developer beta, making navigation bars, buttons, and tabs more opaque to improve readability. The Verge reports: "iOS 26 beta 3 completely nerfs Liquid Glass," AppleTrack developer Sam Kohl says in a post on X. "It looks so much cheaper now and feels like Apple is backtracking on their original vision." Others ask Apple to "stop ruining" Liquid Glass and call the new design a "step backwards." Some users in the beta found that the transparency level can vary depending on the app they're using.

This is still just a developer beta, so it's likely that Apple will continue to make tweaks before it releases iOS 26 to the public in September.
Posted by from MMO Champion
Mists of Pandaria Classic Arena Updates

Originally Posted by Blizzard
(Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

The Arena participation in the MoP Classic Beta has been amazing. Play-testers have reinforced that keeping the Beta online and restarting the season was the right call. Thank you so much for your feedback. We’ve gotten valuable data, and that data revealed what we can do to improve PvP. Here are the changes that are now live in the Beta:

Item level of Season 12 Elite PvP weapons lowered to 483 (was 490).

Item level of Season 12 Non-Elite PvP weapons raised to 483 (was 470).

Battle Fatigue’s healing and shielding reduction raised to 40% (was 30%).

When players got their hands on the iLvl 490 Elite PvP weapons, many games sped up considerably, but the data revealed some concerns. The amount of damage that 20 item levels provides is enough to make it feel like an overwhelming advantage, and unlike the Beta, not everyone will have the weapon. This difference between the weapons was only present in MoP for the very first Arena season. In Seasons 13, 14, and 15, the Elite PvP weapon is a Transmog appearance that adds no power compared to the base Conquest weapon.

When we investigated the original Mists of Pandaria documentation and footage, it was apparent that Season 12 was an outlier. Season 12 happened right before various improvements to PvP were rolled out. Season 12 had no dampening, no PvE item level cap, no base Resilience, and no reduced maximum game duration (it was 25 minutes). It did have Battle Fatigue at a low value, but that was it.

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Posted by BeauHD from Slashdot
From the you-shall-not-scrape department: An anonymous reader quotes a report from 404 Media: For someone who says she is fighting AI bot scrapers just in her free time, Xe Iaso seems to be putting up an impressive fight. Since she launched it in January, Anubis, a "program is designed to help protect the small internet from the endless storm of requests that flood in from AI companies," has been downloaded nearly 200,000 times, and is being used by notable organizations including GNOME, the popular open-source desktop environment for Linux, FFmpeg, the open-source software project for handling video and other media, and UNESCO, the United Nations organization for educations, science, and culture. [...]

"Anubis is an uncaptcha," Iaso explains on her site. "It uses features of your browser to automate a lot of the work that a CAPTCHA would, and right now the main implementation is by having it run a bunch of cryptographic math with JavaScript to prove that you can run JavaScript in a way that can be validated on the server." Essentially, Anubis verifies that any visitor to a site is a human using a browser as opposed to a bot. One of the ways it does this is by making the browser do a type of cryptographic math with JavaScript or other subtle checks that browsers do by default but bots have to be explicitly programmed to do. This check is invisible to the user, and most browsers since 2022 are able to complete this test. In theory, bot scrapers could pretend to be users with browsers as well, but the additional computational cost of doing so on the scale of scraping the entire internet would be huge. This way, Anubis creates a computational cost that is prohibitively expensive for AI scrapers that are hitting millions and millions of sites, but marginal for an individual user who is just using the internet like a human.

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Posted by BeauHD from Slashdot
From the coming-to-a-city-near-you department: Waymo has launched new "road trips" to Philadelphia and New York City, "signaling the Alphabet-owned company's interest in expanding into Northeastern cities," reports TechCrunch. While these trips don't guarantee commercial launches, they follow a pattern that previously led to deployments in cities like Los Angeles. Other road trips this year are planned for Houston, Orlando, Las Vegas, San Diego, and San Antonio. From the report: Typically, the trips involve sending a small fleet of human-driven vehicles equipped with Waymo's autonomous driving system to map out the new city. Then Waymo tests the vehicles autonomously, though still with a human behind the wheel, before taking any data and learnings back to its engineers to improve the AI driver's performance. In some cases, these road trips have led to commercial launches. In 2023, the company made a road trip to Santa Monica, a city in Los Angeles County. The company now operates a commercial service in Los Angeles, including Santa Monica, Beverly Hills, and Hollywood.

For its Philadelphia trip, Waymo plans to place vehicles in the most complex parts of the city, including downtown and freeways, according to a spokesperson. She noted folks will see Waymo vehicles driving "at all hours throughout various Philadelphia neighborhoods, from North Central to Eastwick, University City, and as far east as the Delaware River."

In NYC, Waymo will drive its cars manually in Manhattan just north of Central Park down to The Battery and parts of Downtown Brooklyn. The company will also map parts of Jersey City and Hoboken in New Jersey. Waymo applied last month for a permit to test its AVs in New York City with a human behind the wheel. The company has not yet received approval.
Posted by BeauHD from Slashdot
From the decentralized-everything department: Jack Dorsey has launched Bitchat, a decentralized, peer-to-peer messaging app that uses Bluetooth mesh networks for encrypted, ephemeral chats without requiring accounts, servers, or internet access. The beta version is live on TestFlight, with a full white paper available on GitHub. CNBC reports: In a post on X Sunday, Dorsey called it a personal experiment in "bluetooth mesh networks, relays and store and forward models, message encryption models, and a few other things."

Bitchat enables ephemeral, encrypted communication between nearby devices. As users move through physical space, their phones form local Bluetooth clusters and pass messages from device to device, allowing them to reach peers beyond standard range -- even without Wi-Fi or cell service. Certain "bridge" devices connect overlapping clusters, expanding the mesh across greater distances. Messages are stored only on device, disappear by default and never touch centralized infrastructure -- echoing Dorsey's long-running push for privacy-preserving, censorship-resistant communication.

Like the Bluetooth-based apps used during Hong Kong's 2019 protests, Bitchat is designed to keep working even when the internet is blocked, offering a censorship-resistant way to stay connected during outages, shutdowns or surveillance. The app also supports optional group chats, or "rooms," which can be named with hashtags and protected by passwords. It includes store and forward functionality to deliver messages to users who are temporarily offline. A future update will add WiFi Direct to increase speed and range, pushing Dorsey's vision for off-grid, user-owned communication even further.
Posted by BeauHD from Slashdot
From the changes-incoming department: An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Epic Games, buoyed by the massive success of Fortnite, has spent the last few years throwing elbows in the mobile industry to get its app store on more phones. It scored an antitrust win against Google in late 2023, and the following year it went after Samsung for deploying "Auto Blocker" on its Android phones, which would make it harder for users to install the Epic Games Store. Now, the parties have settled the case just days before Samsung will unveil its latest phones.

The Epic Store drama began several years ago when the company defied Google and Apple rules about accepting outside payments in the mega-popular Fortnite. Both stores pulled the app, and Epic sued. Apple emerged victorious, with Fortnite only returning to the iPhone recently. Google, however, lost the case after Epic showed it worked behind the scenes to stymie the development of app stores like Epic's. Google is still working to avoid penalties in that long-running case, but Epic thought it smelled a conspiracy last year. It filed a similar lawsuit against Samsung, accusing it of implementing a feature to block third-party app stores. The issue comes down to the addition of a feature to Samsung phones called Auto Blocker, which is similar to Google's new Advanced Protection in Android 16. It protects against attacks over USB, disables link previews, and scans apps more often for malicious activity. Most importantly, it blocks app sideloading. Without sideloading, there's no way to install the Epic Games Store or any of the content inside it.

< This article continues on their website >
Posted by msmash from Slashdot
From the for-what-it-is-worth department: Nintendo plans to maintain its "traditional approach" to game development while managing rising costs during the Switch 2 transition, company president Shuntaro Furukawa said during a recent shareholders meeting.

"Recent game software development has become larger in scale and longer in duration, resulting in higher development costs," he said, adding that "rising development costs are increasing that risk" in what has always been "a high-risk business."

Nintendo's development teams are "currently devising various ways to maintain our traditional approach to creating games amidst the increasing scale and length of development," Furukawa said. The company believes, he said, "it is important to make the necessary investments for more efficient development."

The early Switch 2 lineup reflects increased ambition, with Mario Kart World introducing open-world structure to the racing series and Donkey Kong Bananza adding destructive elements to 3D platforming. Mario Kart World sells for $79.99, $10 more than most Nintendo games, while the Switch 2 costs $449.99, a $100 increase over the Switch OLED.
Posted by msmash from Slashdot
From the tough-luck department: An anonymous reader shares a report: Delhi's government has been forced to reverse a controversial plan to effectively ban older vehicles from city roads after public backlash and concerns over how the policy would be implemented.

The plan would have seen "end of life vehicles" -- petrol cars over 15 years old and diesel vehicles over 10 -- denied fuel at petrol stations using automatic number plate recognition cameras, or ANPR, and, potentially, impounded on the spot.

The policy was set to come into effect this week but state environment minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa said last week the government would halt the plan following widespread complaints. Mr Sirsa said the administration would not allow vehicles to be seized and cited "technological integration challenges" and a lack of coordination with neighbouring states sharing traffic with the capital.
Posted by msmash from Slashdot
From the how-about-that department: Leaders of the BRICS group of developing nations addressed the shared challenges of global warming on Monday, the final day of their summit in Rio de Janeiro, demanding that wealthy nations fund mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions in poorer nations. From a report: In his opening remarks, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who will host the United Nations climate summit in November, also blasted denialism of the climate emergency, indirectly criticizing U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to pull his country out of the 2015 Paris Agreement.

"Today, denialism and unilateralism are eroding past achievements and harming our future," he said. "The Global South is in a position to lead a new development paradigm without repeating the mistakes of the past." Trump took issue on Sunday with veiled criticism from the BRICS group, accusing the bloc of having "anti-American policies" and threatening them with extra 10% tariffs.
Posted by msmash from Slashdot
From the AI-sycophancy department: alternative_right writes: A study by Anthropic researchers on how human feedback can encourage sycophantic behavior showed that AI assistants will sometimes modify accurate answers when questioned by the user -- and ultimately give an inaccurate response.
Geology Murder 2025-07-07 13:15:03
Posted by Randall Munroe from XKCD
After determining that his body was full of pipes carrying iron-rich fluid, our current theory is that the dagger-shaped object precipitated within the wound.
Posted by msmash from Slashdot
From the we're-not-all-the-same department: Apple displayed a full-screen ad for "F1 The Movie" in its TV app that linked directly to a web browser for ticket purchases without showing warning screens that the company requires other developers to include when directing users outside their apps.

The "Buy Tickets" button sent users to the F1 movie website in their default browser without confirmation dialogs or interstitial warnings. Apple mandates that third-party developers show scare sheets when linking out of apps to sell digital content, but considers movie tickets a "real-world experience" exempt from its In-App Purchase system.

Further reading: iPhone Customers Upset By Apple Wallet Ad Pushing F1 Movie.
Posted by msmash from Slashdot
From the growing-adoption department: An anonymous reader shares a report: Netflix doubled down on its global anime strategy over the weekend, unveiling a slate of new titles and fresh footage during its showcase at Anime Expo in Los Angeles.

The company also shared updated viewership data highlighting just how far Japanese anime has come in expanding from its former niche into a powerhouse global content category. According to Netflix, more than 50 percent of its members -- amounting to over 150 million households, or an estimated 300 million viewers -- now watch anime. The company says anime viewership on the platform has tripled over the past five years, with 2024 marking a record-breaking year: 33 anime titles appeared in Netflix's Global Top 10 (Non-English) rankings, more than double the number in 2021.
Posted by from MMO Champion
The War Within: Ghosts of K'aresh Goes Live August 5

Originally Posted by Blizzard
(Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Prepare to dive deeper into The War Within campaign in the Ghosts of K’aresh content update. Explore a new zone, break ground in a new Delve, make an impact in Ecological Succession, and more.The War Within Season 3 also kicks off on August 12 with a new raid dungeon, new dungeon pool, and PvP updates.




At a Glance:

Continue The War Within Campaign

New Zone: K’aresh

New City Hub: Tazavesh, the Veiled Market

New Raid: Manaforge Omega

New Upgradeable Artifact: Reshii Wraps

New Feature: Phase Diving

New Delve: The Archival Assault

New System: Ecological Succession

New Dungeon: Eco-Dome Al’dani

Season 3 Updated Dungeon Pool

New Class Updates

New PvP Updates




Continue The War Within Campaign



In The Ghosts of K’aresh, the campaign continues as more pieces to a troubling puzzle fall into place. Players immerse themselves in The War Within story as it leads up to the next chapter of the Worldsoul Saga—Midnight.

There’s some unfinished business to be had on K’aresh and the specter of an old enemy looms large. Forces with ill-intent are determined to bring forth Dimensius, the All-Devouring once more to finish off the ethereals. Should he arise, Azeroth will also be in peril from this dangerous Void Lord.




New Zone: Explore the Shattered World of K’aresh

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Posted by from MMO Champion
Ghosts of K'aresh: Manaforge Omega Raid Goes Live August 12

Originally Posted by Blizzard
(Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Gather your allies and enter Manaforge Omega, a massive cosmic facility where the Shadow Guard Ethereals seek to revive Dimensius, the All-Devouring. Brave the arcane dangers and engage in the epic battles that await, culminating in a showdown that could decide the fate of Azeroth.

To enter and effectively navigate through the halls within Manaforge Omega, players will need to claim and utilize the Reshii Wraps artifact which is available by playing through the Ghosts of K’aresh campaign.




Raid Details:

Where: K’aresh

Raid Bosses: 8

Level: 80

Difficulties: Raid Finder Wing 1, Normal, Heroic, Mythic

Raid Finder Minimum Item Level: 651

Raid Unlock Schedule:

Week of August 12: Normal, Heroic, Mythic, Raid Finder Wing 1- Might of the Shadowguard (Plexus Sentinel; Loomíthar; Soulbinder Naazindhri)

Week of August 19: Story Mode, Raid Finder Wing 2- Monsters of the Sands (Forgeweaver Araz, The Soul Hunters, Fractillus)

Week of August 26: Raid Finder Wing 3- Heart of Darkness (Nexus-King Salhadaar, Dimensius, the All Devouring)




Manaforge Omega

Manaforge Omega, built to harness arcane power from the wastes of K’aresh, now hums with a sinister radiance. Within it, Nexus0King Slahadaar attempts to reawaken Dimensius, the All-Devouring, in a bid for ultimate power. The champions of Azeroth must disrupt Manaforge Omega’s operations or else risk a reborn Dimensius feasting on reality itself.

Bosses

The Forge Core

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Posted by from MMO Champion
The Winds of Mysterious Fortune Return July 15

Originally Posted by Blizzard
(Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Get satchels chock full of valuable and unique items with the return of the Winds of Mysterious Fortune event, and take advantage of the Winds of Mysterious Fortune 20% experience buff—catch up on your alts, finish missed content and unlocks, and dive into the latest content in The War Within.

When: July 15 – August 12




You Get a Satchel, and You Get a Satchel!

While questing and adventuring in certain Dragonflight and The War Within zones, players below level 80 can gain Mysterious Satchels bursting with goodies while looting creatures or as a bonus reward from completing quests.

Mysterious Satchels contain various unique and valuable items, including temporary stat boosts, visual alterations, a chance for bonus gear appropriate to your level and specialization, and 10% experience potions that stack with the 20% experience buff to a maximum of 30%. If you think Mysterious Satchels are amazing, then you’ll love Pristine Mysterious Satchels. The first Mysterious Satchel drop you earn daily will be Pristine quality, giving you a greater chance to earn even more valuable rewards.

Experience potions are a Warband-bound item that can be consumed during the event or saved until after the event is over for use on your other level 10–79 characters. However, any stat or elemental potion effects will not work in Mythic+ Raids or rated PvP content.




A Buff to Speed Things Along

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Posted by from MMO Champion
The War Within Season 3 Arrives on August 5

Originally Posted by Blizzard
(Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Take charge of your destiny with all-new challenges in The War Within Season 3 with an all-new raid— Manaforge Omega, a fresh dungeon—Eco-Dome Al'dani, a new Delve—The Archival Assault, an updated rotation of challenging Mythic+ dungeons, a new PvP season, and more!

Schedule

Week of August 5

Campaign Chapters 1–3

Dungeons: Dungeons on Normal, Heroic, and Mythic 0 difficulties (excluding Tazavesh).

Delves (all tiers, no Bountiful Delves or Keys)

Great Vault credit begins

Week of August 12

Campaign Chapter 4 and The War Within Epilogue

Manaforge Omega Raid: Raid Finder Wing 1, Normal, Heroic, and Mythic difficulties

New World Boss: Reshanor, The Unteathered

Dungeons: Mythic+ difficulty, Tazavesh: Street of Wonder and Soleah's Gambit (all difficulties), and Tazavesh, the Veiled City Har Mode difficulty.

Season 3 PvP

Delves: Bountiful Delves and Keys, Challenge Boss, New Levels and Curios for Brann

Great Vault rewards become available

Week of August 19

Manaforge Omega Raid: Raid Finder Wing 2 and Story Mode

Week of August 26

Manaforge Omega Raid: Raid Finder Wing 3




New Raid: Enter the Manforge Omega to Face New Foes



Week of August 12: Raid Finder Wing 1: Might of the Shadowguard (Plexus Sentinel | Loomithar | Soulbinder Naazindhri), Normal, Heroic, Mythic

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Posted by msmash from Slashdot
From the ticket-closed department: An anonymous reader shares a report: OpenAI said it has no active plans to use Google's in-house chip to power its products, two days after Reuters and other news outlets reported on the AI lab's move to turn to its competitor's artificial intelligence chips to meet growing demand.

A spokesperson for OpenAI said on Sunday that while the AI lab is in early testing with some of Google's tensor processing units (TPUs), it has no plans to deploy them at scale right now.
Posted by msmash from Slashdot
From the how-about-that department: The European Union is holding back on signing a joint climate action pledge with China at a summit this month to mark a half-century of diplomatic ties, a top climate official told the Financial Times in remarks published on Monday. Reuters: The EU's climate targets are among the world's most ambitious, but they have been based entirely on domestic emissions cuts. Now the bloc faces a mid-September deadline to submit a new 2035 climate target to the United Nations.

Brussels has refused Beijing's repeated requests for a mutual climate commitment after the summit of the world's second- and third-largest economies, unless China promises to do more to cut greenhouse gas emissions, EU officials said. "There is only merit in having a declaration from our perspective if there are also content nuts to be cracked and ambition to be displayed," Climate Commissioner Wopke Hoekstra told the paper.
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