Yahoo on Friday said it has struck a deal to [1]sell TechCrunch , the 20-year-old tech journalism site, to Regent, a media investment firm. Axios:

> Yahoo's business centers mostly on aggregation. Journalism isn't its core focus. Regent is trying to pull together a portfolio of tech news sites and is eager to invest in news. Earlier this week, it acquired Foundry, which houses a slew of online tech publications, such as PCWorld, Macworld and TechAdvisor.

>

> In a statement, Regent said it is "thrilled to expand its reach as it provides breaking technology news, opinions, and analysis on tech companies worldwide to our audience." Financial deal terms were not disclosed. The deal will not require regulatory review, which is normally needed for deals valued at roughly more than $100 million.



[1] https://www.axios.com/2025/03/21/yahoo-techcrunch-regent

Google has filed a lawsuit against alleged scammers who [1]created and sold fake business profiles on Google Maps , the company said. The legal action follows an investigation that uncovered and eliminated more than 10,000 illegitimate listings.

The investigation began after a Texas business reported an unlicensed locksmith impersonating them on the platform. Google discovered the scams primarily targeted "duress verticals" -- services needed in urgent situations like locksmiths and towing companies. "Once we're alerted to the actual fraud, we take extreme efforts to identify similar fraudulent listings," said Halimah DeLaine Prado, Google's general counsel.

The scammers used tactics including bait-and-switch schemes and intercepting calls to legitimate businesses through "lead generation services." They also sold fraudulent positive reviews to suppress negative feedback.



[1] https://www.cbsnews.com/news/google-maps-fake-listings-lawsuit-scams/

[1]DaringFireball :

> Whole [2]Reddit thread examining this simple question: "What month is it?" and Siri's "I'm sorry, I don't understand" response (which I just reproduced on my iPhone 16 Pro running iOS 18.4b4). One guy changed the question to "What month is it currently?" and got the answer "It is 2025."

More comments from that thread:

> "I ask Siri to play a podcast and she literally says, "I'm trying to play from Apple Podcasts but it doesn't look like you have it installed." I didn't even know you could delete that app. I certainly haven't. So I have to manually do it every time now. It used to work."

>

> "I asked Siri last night to set a reminder for 3:50, so naturally she set it for 10:00."

Further reading :

[3]Apple Shakes Up AI Executive Ranks in Bid to Turn Around Siri ;

[4]'Something Is Rotten in the State of Cupertino' .



[1] https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/03/19/hey-siri-what-month-is-it

[2] https://old.reddit.com/r/iphone/comments/1jehkpm/apple_intelligence_this_apple_intelligence_that/

[3] https://apple.slashdot.org/story/25/03/20/168205/apple-shakes-up-ai-executive-ranks-in-bid-to-turn-around-siri

[4] https://apple.slashdot.org/story/25/03/13/1815207/something-is-rotten-in-the-state-of-cupertino

European Central Bank Chief Economist Philip Lane warned that Europe must develop a digital euro to [1]counter growing American influence over the continent's financial system [ [2]alternative source ] amid escalating geopolitical tensions. Lane specifically cited Europe's "current dependence on US payment-card providers Visa and Mastercard, as well as technology companies including PayPal, Apple and Google" as a vulnerability requiring urgent action.

His comments come as President Donald Trump's administration promotes dollar-backed stablecoins worldwide as part of a broader cryptocurrency strategy, alarming European officials. ECB Governing Council member Francois Villeroy de Galhau recently cautioned that "the US risks bringing about the next financial emergency through its support of cryptocurrencies."

"The digital euro is not just about adapting to the digital age. It is about ensuring Europe controls its monetary and financial destiny," Lane told a conference in Ireland, noting that a digital currency would "limit the likelihood of foreign-currency stablecoins gaining a foothold" in Europe.



[1] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-03-20/ecb-s-lane-backs-digital-euro-to-avoid-rising-stablecoin-risks

[2] https://finance.yahoo.com/news/digital-euro-needed-counter-stablecoins-165343454.html

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang on Thursday [1]walked back comments he made in January, when he cast doubt on whether useful quantum computers would hit the market in the next 15 years. From a report:

> At Nvidia's "Quantum Day" event, part of the company's annual GTC Conference, Huang admitted that his comments came out wrong. "This is the first event in history where a company CEO invites all of the guests to explain why he was wrong," Huang said.

>

> In January, Huang sent quantum computing stocks reeling when he said 15 years was " [2]on the early side " in considering how long it would be before the technology would be useful. He said at the time that 20 years was a timeframe that "a whole bunch of us would believe." In his opening comments on Thursday, Huang drew comparisons between pre-revenue quantum companies and Nvidia's early days. He said it took over 20 years for Nvidia to build out its software and hardware business.

>

> He also expressed surprise that his comments were able to move markets, and joked he didn't know that certain quantum computing companies were publicly traded. "How could a quantum computer company be public?" Huang said.



[1] https://www.cnbc.com/2025/03/20/nvidia-ceo-huang-says-was-wrong-about-timeline-for-quantum-computing.html

[2] https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/01/08/1328234/nvidias-huang-says-very-useful-quantum-computers-likely-decades-away

President Trump [1]signed a long-expected executive action on Thursday calling on U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon to "take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the Department of Education and return authority over education to the States and local communities." From a report:

> "We're going to be returning education, very simply, back to the states where it belongs," Trump said. "And this is a very popular thing to do, but much more importantly, it's a common sense thing to do, and it's going to work, absolutely."

>

> The move has been expected since early February, when the White House revealed its intentions but withheld the action until after McMahon's Senate confirmation. It now arrives more than a week after the Trump administration has already begun sweeping layoffs at the Education Department. According to the administration's own numbers, Trump inherited a department with 4,133 employees. Nearly 600 workers have since chosen to leave, by resigning or retiring. And last week, 1,300 workers were told they would lose their jobs as part of a reduction in force. That leaves 2,183 staff at the department -- roughly half the size it was just a few weeks ago.

>

> The order instructs McMahon to act "to the maximum extent appropriate and permitted by law," an acknowledgement that the department and its signature responsibilities were created by Congress and cannot legally be ended without congressional approval. That would almost certainly require 60 votes in the U.S. Senate to overcome a Democratic filibuster.



[1] https://www.npr.org/2025/03/19/nx-s1-5333861/trump-executive-action-education-department

Two "groundbreaking research reports" on open source security were [1]announced this week by the Linux Foundation in partnership with the Open Source Security Foundation (OpenSSF) and Linux Foundation Europe. The reports specifically address the EU's Cyber Resilience Act (or CRA) and "highlight knowledge gaps and best practices for CRA compliance."

" [2]Unaware and Uncertain: The Stark Realities of CRA-Readiness in Open Source " includes a survey which found that when it comes to CRA requirements, 62% of respondents were either "not familiar at all" (36%) or "slightly familiar" (26%) — while 51% weren't sure about its deadlines. ("Only 28% correctly identified 2027 as the target year for full compliance," according to one infographic, which adds that CRA "is expected to drive a 6% average price increase, though 53% of manufacturers are still assessing pricing impacts.")

> Manufacturers, who bear primary responsibility, lack readiness — many [46%] passively rely on upstream security fixes, and only a small portion produce Software Bills of Materials (SBOMs). The report recommends that manufacturers take a more active role in open source security, that more funding and legal support is needed to support security practices, and that clear regulatory guidance is essential to prevent unintended negative impacts on open source development.

The research also provides "an in-depth analysis of how open collaboration can strengthen software security and innovation across global markets," with [3]another report that "examines how three Linux Foundation projects are meeting the CRA's minimum compliance requirements" and "provides insight on the elements needed to ensure leadership in cybersecurity best practices." (It also includes CRA-related resources.)

"These two reports offer actionable conclusions for open source stakeholders to ready themselves for 2027, when the CRA comes into force," according to a Linux Foundation reserach executive cited in the announcement. "We hope that these reports catalyze higher levels of collaboration across the open source community."



[1] https://www.linuxfoundation.org/press/linux-foundation-research-reports-reveal-wide-spectrum-for-cyber-resilience-act-readiness-and-compliance

[2] https://www.linuxfoundation.org/research/cra-readiness?hsLang=en

[3] https://www.linuxfoundation.org/research/cra-compliance-best-practices?hsLang=en

Controversial facial recognition company Clearview AI attempted to purchase hundreds of millions of arrest records including social security numbers, mugshots, and even email addresses to incorporate into its product, 404 Media reports. From the report:

> For years, Clearview AI has collected billions of photos from social media websites including Facebook, LinkedIn and others and sold access to its facial recognition tool to law enforcement. The collection and sale of user-generated photos by a private surveillance company to police without that person's knowledge or consent sparked international outcry when it was first revealed by the New York Times in 2020.

>

> New documents obtained by 404 Media reveal that Clearview AI spent nearly a million dollars in a [1]bid to purchase "690 million arrest records and 390 million arrest photos" from all 50 states from an intelligence firm. The contract further describes the records as including current and former home addresses, dates of birth, arrest photos, social security and cell phone numbers, and email addresses. Clearview attempted to purchase this data from Investigative Consultant, Inc. (ICI) which billed itself as an intelligence company with access to tens of thousands of databases and the ability to create unique data streams for its clients. The contract was signed in mid-2019, at a time when Clearview AI was quietly collecting billions of photos off the internet and was relatively unknown at the time.



[1] https://www.404media.co/facial-recognition-company-clearview-attempted-to-buy-social-security-numbers-and-mugshots-for-its-database

Over the past two decades, school districts have spent billions equipping classrooms with laptops, [1]yet students have fallen further behind on essential skills , Michael Bloomberg argues. With about 90% of schools now providing these devices, test scores hover near historic lows -- only 28% of eighth graders proficient in math and 30% in reading.

Bloomberg notes technology's classroom push came from technologists and government officials who envisioned tailored curricula. Computer manufacturers, despite good intentions, had financial interests and profited substantially. The Google executive who questioned why children should learn equations when they could Google answers might now ask why they should write essays when chatbots can do it for them.

Studies confirm traditional methods -- reading and writing on paper -- remain superior to screen-based approaches. Devices distract students, with research showing up to 20 minutes needed to refocus after nonacademic activities. As some districts ban smartphones during school hours, Bloomberg suggests reconsidering classroom computer policies, recommending locked carts for more purposeful use and greater transparency for parents about screen time. Technology's promise has failed while imposing significant costs on children and taxpayers, he writes. Bloomberg calls for a return to books and pens over laptops and tablets.



[1] https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2025-03-19/michael-bloomberg-kids-are-spending-too-much-class-time-on-laptops

Scientists at Zhejiang University have [1]created the world's smallest LED display , featuring pixels just 90 nanometers wide -- roughly the size of a typical virus and too tiny to be seen with optical microscopes. The breakthrough, described in Nature this week, uses perovskite semiconductors that maintain brightness even at microscopic scales, giving them an advantage over conventional LEDs.

The research team, led by Baodan Zhao, also demonstrated a larger display with pixels measuring about 100 micrometers (human hair width) that successfully rendered images including a spinning globe.



[1] https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-00813-w

A United States District Court judge has [1]approved a settlement between HP and customers who sued the company for firmware updates that prevented printers from working with non-HP ink cartridges.

The class-action lawsuit, filed in December 2020, alleged HP "wrongfully compels users" to buy only HP ink by issuing updates that block competitors' cartridges. Under the settlement, HP admits no wrongdoing and won't pay monetary damages to affected customers, though it will pay $5,000 each to the three plaintiffs and $725,000 in attorneys' fees.

HP has agreed to allow users of specific printer models impacted by the November 2020 update to decline firmware updates containing "Dynamic Security" features -- HP's term for technology that blocks cartridges using non-HP chips. The settlement applies only to 21 specific printer models, leaving numerous other HP printers subject to Dynamic Security restrictions. HP has previously paid millions in similar cases in Europe, Australia, and California related to printer bricking.



[1] https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/03/hp-avoids-monetary-damages-over-bricked-printers-in-class-action-settlement/

Google is introducing an AI-powered update to Gmail search that prioritizes [1]"most relevant" results based on recency, frequent contacts, and most-clicked emails. The feature aims to help users more efficiently locate specific messages in crowded inboxes. The update is rolling out globally to personal Google accounts, with business accounts to follow at an unspecified date. Users will have the option to toggle between the new AI-powered "most relevant" search and the traditional reverse chronological "most recent" view.



[1] https://blog.google/products/gmail/gmail-search-update-relevant-emails/

LG is [1]shutting down Art Lab , its [2]NFT marketplace for TVs . From a report:

> In a notice posted to its website, LG says it has made the "difficult decision" to close the platform on June 17th. LG launched its Art Lab app during the NFT craze in 2022, billing it as a way to "buy, sell and enjoy high-quality digital artwork" from your TV. It added new digital art to the platform through "groundbreaking" NFT drops, which users could purchase by scanning a QR code to complete transactions through Wallypto, LG's crypto wallet app.



[1] https://www.theverge.com/news/633272/lg-art-lab-nft-marketplace-shutdown

[2] https://entertainment.slashdot.org/story/22/09/05/176259/lg-is-bringing-nfts-to-its-smart-tvs

A new AI system called Aardvark could deliver weather forecasts as accurate as those from advanced public weather services [1]but run on desktop computers , according to a project unveiled Thursday and [2]published in Nature . Developed by the UK's Alan Turing Institute with partners including Cambridge University, the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts and Microsoft, Aardvark aims to make sophisticated forecasting accessible to countries with fewer resources, particularly in Africa.

The system has already outperformed the US Global Forecast System on many variables in testing. Project leader Richard Turner noted the system is "completely open source" and not planned for commercialization by Microsoft.



[1] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/mar/20/ai-aardvark-weather-prediction-forecasting-artificial-intelligence

[2] https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-08897-0

IBM is [1]laying off thousands of employees across the United States, with approximately 25% of staff at its Cloud Classic operation affected, The Register reports, citing a source. "Concrete numbers are being kept private," a source told the publication. "It is in the thousands."

Staff reductions have occurred in Raleigh, North Carolina; New York; Dallas, Texas; and California, the report said. Affected departments include consulting, corporate social responsibility, cloud infrastructure, sales, and internal systems teams. The report adds:

> With regard to IBM Cloud Classic -- the infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) outfit offering built on IBM's 2013 acquisition of SoftLayer -- another source told us: "It's a resource action. I don't know how many people are in IaaS classic. They don't typically make that information easy to find. What I can say is that they have been making a lot of changes to shift employment to India as much as possible."

>

> A third source, newly let go by Big Blue, said it was fair to characterize this a layoff. "Everyone I know that was affected, myself included, was simply offered a separation agreement," this individual said, estimating that 10 percent of the Cloud group (which is not the same as Cloud Classic) has been let go.



[1] https://www.theregister.com/2025/03/20/ibm_cuts_us_jobs/

Nvidia is selling its scarce RTX 5080 and 5090 graphics cards [1]from a pop-up "food truck" at its GPU Technology Conference, where attendees paying over $1,000 for tickets can purchase the coveted hardware alongside merchandise. The company has only 2,000 cards available (1,000 each of RTX 5080 and 5090), released in small batches at random times during the three-day conference which concludes tomorrow.



[1] https://www.pcworld.com/article/2643886/nvidia-sells-rtx-gpus-from-a-food-truck.html

Apple is undergoing a rare shake-up of its executive ranks, aiming to get its artificial intelligence efforts back on track after months of delays and stumbles, Bloomberg News reported Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter. From the report:

> Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook has lost confidence in the ability of AI head John Giannandrea to execute on product development, [1]so he's moving over another top executive to help : Vision Pro creator Mike Rockwell. In a new role, Rockwell will be in charge of the Siri virtual assistant, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the moves haven't been announced.

>

> Rockwell will report to software chief Craig Federighi, removing Siri completely from Giannandrea's command. Apple is poised to announce the changes to employees this week. The iPhone maker's senior leaders -- a group known as the Top 100 -- just met at a secretive, annual offsite gathering to discuss the future of the company. Its AI efforts were a key talking point at the summit, Bloomberg News has reported.

>

> The moves underscore the plight facing Apple: Its AI technology is severely lagging industry rivals, and the company has shown little sign of catching up. The Apple Intelligence platform was late to arrive and largely a flop, despite being the main selling point for the iPhone 16.

Further reading : [2]'Something Is Rotten in the State of Cupertino'



[1] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-03-20/apple-vision-pro-chief-mike-rockwell-named-siri-head-giannandrea-keeps-ai-role

[2] https://apple.slashdot.org/story/25/03/13/1815207/something-is-rotten-in-the-state-of-cupertino

Cosmologists have uncovered stronger evidence that dark energy -- the mysterious force accelerating cosmic expansion -- [1]may be weakening over time . The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) collaboration presented their [2]latest findings at the Global Physics Summit in Anaheim, California, reinforcing their preliminary results from last year.

The DESI team analyzed data from approximately 15 million galaxies collected over three years, more than doubling their previous dataset of 6 million galaxies. Combined with supernova observations and cosmic microwave background data, their analysis shows a 4.2-sigma deviation from the standard Lambda-CDM cosmological model, which assumes dark energy remains constant.

"We are much more certain than last year that this is definitely a thing," said Seshadri Nadathur of the University of Portsmouth, a key DESI researcher. These findings align with recent independent results from the Dark Energy Survey (DES), which earlier this month reported a similar 3.2-sigma tension with Lambda-CDM -- a tension that disappears if dark energy is allowed to vary. If confirmed, evolving dark energy could fundamentally alter cosmologists' understanding of the universe's ultimate fate. Instead of expanding indefinitely until all particles become impossibly separated, the universe might follow alternative trajectories.

"It challenges the fate of the universe," explained Mustapha Ishak-Boushaki from the University of Texas at Dallas. "It's game-changing." Moreover, these findings challenge the simplest explanation of dark energy as vacuum energy, which quantum physics suggests should remain constant. Instead, the results indicate unknown physics, possibly involving a new particle, a modification to Einstein's theory of gravity, or even a new fundamental theory. DESI will continue observing through 2026, eventually producing a final map expected to include 50 million galaxies, potentially providing definitive evidence for this cosmic paradigm shift.



[1] https://www.quantamagazine.org/is-dark-energy-getting-weaker-new-evidence-strengthens-the-case-20250319/

[2] https://arxiv.org/pdf/2503.14738

Pebble founder Eric Migicovsky has warned that the company's [1]revived smartwatch line will face significant functionality limitations when paired with iPhones, blaming Apple's restrictive policies that favor its own Apple Watch. "It's impossible for a 3rd party smartwatch to send text messages, or perform actions on notifications (like dismissing, muting, replying) and many, many other things," Migicovsky [2]wrote in a blog post , adding that the situation has "actually gotten worse over the last 8 years."

A 2024 class action lawsuit cited in the post claims Apple has added further restrictions since iOS 13, including requiring users to display full content previews on their lock screens for notifications to reach third-party watches. Pebble is still developing an iOS app because 40% of potential customers use iPhones, he said. Migicovsky warned that the watch will "always appear to have less developed functionality on iOS than Android" and some features will arrive on Android first.



[1] https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/03/18/1621244/the-first-new-pebble-smartwatches-are-coming-later-this-year

[2] https://ericmigi.com/blog/apple-restricts-pebble-from-being-awesome-with-iphones

The credit-card market has quietly split in two, Atlantic [1]argues in a new story : one offering generous benefits to wealthy Americans, the other offering expensive debt to the poor. Credit-card balances have reached an all-time high of $1.2 trillion, with serious delinquency rates climbing to their highest point since the Great Recession.

"Transactors" pay off balances monthly and earn valuable rewards worth up to $3,000 annually in taxable income equivalent, while "revolvers" carry balances at a brutal 21.5% average APR. The poor subsidize the rich through two mechanisms: swipe fees that drive up retail prices by $1,700 annually for the average family, and late fees and interest charges that finance rewards programs. Interest revenue for credit-card companies has ballooned from $76 billion in 2020 to $170 billion in 2024.

The economy now appears to be slowing down. High-income families are increasingly resembling working-class families in credit data, with three in five households earning over $80,000 annually carrying balances for more than a year. Card companies are now offering fewer cards to subprime borrowers, creating a troubling dilemma - while expensive credit cards are harmful, having no credit access might be worse. Bipartisan legislation now aims to cap interest rates and lower swipe fees.



[1] https://www.yahoo.com/news/two-kinds-credit-cards-113000521.html