Thomas Claburn

San Francisco

Reporter at The Register

Journalism: @TheRegister Code: https://t.co/Rd5wfpMQcN Fiction: https://t.co/afEBZZeMzD…

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Articles

US Defense Department cancels $5.1B in contracts

1 week ago | theregister.com | Thomas Claburn

The US Department of Defense (DOD) has canceled contracts for "consulting and other non-essential services" in the latest round of cuts conceived by Elon Musk's DOGE unit. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Thursday announced the signing of a memorandum that terminates $5.1 billion in DOD contracts, emphasizing the "B" in "billion" – an accommodation for the impaired or perhaps just as a victory lap. "Here's a few examples," he said.
Firebase Studio promises app prototypes from AI prompts • The Register

1 week ago | theregister.com | Thomas Claburn

Cloud Next: Big G reckons this agentic IDE speeds up or simplifies coding. Developers who've used it aren't so sure
Amazon Nova Sonic speech model takes tonal cues

2 weeks ago | theregister.com | Thomas Claburn

Amazon has introduced a foundation model that claims to grasp not just what you're saying, but how you're saying it - tone, hesitation, and more. Amazon Nova Sonic, the latest member of the Nova family of foundation models first introduced in December 2024, accepts spoken input and responds with real-time speech, while also generating a transcript for developers.
Apple agrees to settle unfair labor charges

2 weeks ago | theregister.com | Thomas Claburn

Apple has agreed to settle charges of labor rights violations filed with America's employment watchdog by whistleblower Ashley Gjøvik. "Today marks a monumental moment in my legal battles for accountability and worker rights: The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has finalized a settlement with Apple, requiring the company to rescind its unlawful workplace policies on a nationwide basis," Gjøvik said in a statement on her website this week.
Pharmacist accused of spying on women using work, home cams

2 weeks ago | theregister.com | Thomas Claburn

A now-former pharmacist at the University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC) has been accused of compromising the US healthcare organization's IT systems to ogle female clinicians using webcams at their workplace and at their homes. The civil lawsuit [PDF], filed last week in a Baltimore circuit court by Grant and Eisenhofer attorney Steve Kelly on behalf of six unidentified Jane Doe plaintiffs, alleges egregious privacy violations.
Judge slams AI entrepreneur for having avatar testify

2 weeks ago | theregister.com | Thomas Claburn

Interview The founder of an AI startup who attempted to use an artificially generated avatar to argue his case in court has been scolded by a judge for the stunt. The avatar – its appearance and voice created by software – appeared on behalf of Jerome Dewald, the plaintiff in an employment dispute with insurance firm MassMutual Metro New York, at a March 26 hearing before the US state's supreme court appellate division.
P&G study finds AI can improve office collaboration

2 weeks ago | theregister.com | Thomas Claburn

Procter & Gamble says organizations should rethink how they're run to take better advantage of innovation enabled by generative AI. The consumer products giant has been AI-curious for several years and recently conducted a study to assess the technology's potential value to its operations.
How President Trump's tariffs will push up prices

2 weeks ago | theregister.com | Thomas Claburn

World War Fee President Donald Trump last week announced a sweeping new round of tariffs, setting the stage for price hikes across consumer tech, pro gear, and almost anything else that crosses a border. Even uninhabited islands are on the list, leading some to fear hallucinating AI was used to draw up the tariff list. The latest spin is that these levies on penguins are to prevent nations using the territories as loopholes to avoid tariffs.
Mozilla takes pity on Firefox extension developers

2 weeks ago | lxer.com | Thomas Claburn

Mozilla plans to make life easier for developers of Firefox browser Add-ons, aka extensions, by reducing the burden of presenting custom consent dialogs to those installing extensions. Alan Byrne, senior staff product manager of Firefox Add-ons, reports that Mozilla intends to change its Add-on policies governing consent dialog prompts.
Chrome preps fix for browser history spying

2 weeks ago | theregister.com | Thomas Claburn

A 23-year-old side-channel attack for spying on people's web browsing histories will get shut down in the forthcoming Chrome 136, released last Thursday to the Chrome beta channel. At least that's the hope. The privacy attack, referred to as browser history sniffing, involves reading the color values of web links on a page to see if the linked pages have been visited previously.