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      Power grab: the hidden costs of Ireland’s datacentre boom – podcast

      news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · 05:00


    Datacentres are part of Ireland’s vision of itself as a tech hub. There are now more than 80, using vast amounts of electricity. Have we entrusted our memories to a system that might destroy them? By Jessica Traynor

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      Facebook secretly spied on Snapchat usage to confuse advertisers, court docs say

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · 2 days ago - 20:25

    Facebook secretly spied on Snapchat usage to confuse advertisers, court docs say

    Enlarge (credit: NurPhoto / Contributor | NurPhoto )

    Unsealed court documents have revealed more details about a secret Facebook project initially called "Ghostbusters," designed to sneakily access encrypted Snapchat usage data to give Facebook a leg up on its rival, just when Snapchat was experiencing rapid growth in 2016.

    The documents were filed in a class-action lawsuit from consumers and advertisers, accusing Meta of anticompetitive behavior that blocks rivals from competing in the social media ads market.

    "Whenever someone asks a question about Snapchat, the answer is usually that because their traffic is encrypted, we have no analytics about them," Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg (who has since rebranded his company as Meta) wrote in a 2016 email to Javier Olivan.

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      When a tenner bought you Biba and a shared bedroom | Brief letters

      news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · 2 days ago - 18:35

    Biba secretary types in | Affordable festivals | Questionable internet searches | Who to vote for | Spurs fans spread out

    I was that secretary who earned £10 a week ( Microminis, Twiggy and flamingos: the ‘fabulous’ story of Biba, 22 March ). I bought those £3 dresses and had just enough to pay my rent in a shared bedroom in, at that time, unfashionable Notting Hill Gate. The material was often thick and the armholes tight, so you could only wear the dresses a few times before buying another one. Dry cleaning was too expensive. I still have a few Biba pieces.
    Lynn Wiseman
    Lewes, East Sussex

    • Every year you do an excellent festival guide . But almost every year you miss out the country’s most affordable, family-friendly, beautifully sited one. Purbeck Valley folk festival has dance, crafts, fancy dress, therapies, choir, storytelling, pyrotechnics and four days of the best music.
    Moira Nunn
    Bristol

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      Google’s Pixel 9 might have three models, adding a small “Pro” phone

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · 2 days ago - 18:32 · 1 minute

    OnLeak's renders of the <a href='https://www.mysmartprice.com/gear/pixel-9-pro-5k-renders-360-degree-video-exclusive/'>Pixel 9 Pro XL</a>, the <a href='https://www.91mobiles.com/hub/google-pixel-9-design-render-exclusive/'>Pixel 9 Pro</a>, and the <a href = 'https://www.91mobiles.com/hub/google-pixel-9-renders-design-exclusive/'>Pixel 9.</a>

    Enlarge / OnLeak's renders of the Pixel 9 Pro XL , the Pixel 9 Pro , and the Pixel 9. (credit: OnLeaks / 91Mobiles / MySmartPrice)

    When renders of the Pixel 9 came out in January from OnLeaks, we got our first hints that a big change in Google's lineup was afoot. Usually, the company does a big "Pro" phone with three cameras and all the premium features and then a smaller Pixel that gets cut down somewhat, usually with only two cameras. Those January renders showed a big and small phone both with three cameras, indicating the base model Pixel 9 was getting updated to be a "mini-Pro" model—a smaller phone, but still with all the trimmings. The small Pro model still seems to be in the works, but apparently, that's not the base model.

    The new render from OnLeaks and 91Mobiles shows a third Pixel 9. This one is the usual cut-down small model with only two cameras. Apparently, the lineup would now be a 6.8-inch "Pixel 9 Pro XL," a "Pixel 9 Pro" at 6.1 inches, and a "Pixel 9" at 6.0 inches.

    The base model's design looks just like the other Pixel 9 leaks. The camera bar takes on a new rounded pill shape. The sides switch to a flat metal band, like an iPhone 4/15. The corners of the display and phone body are much more rounded.

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      Google Pixel 9 : un modèle inattendu ferait son retour

      news.movim.eu / JournalDuGeek · 2 days ago - 17:04

    Google Pixel 9 3

    Google créerait la surprise cette année en proposant trois smartphones au sein de sa gamme Pixel 9. En plus du Pixel 9 et d'un Pixel 9 Pro plus petit, le fabricant proposerait un autre modèle.
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      Meta and Google accused of restricting reproductive health information

      news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · 2 days ago - 14:41

    Report claims posts on abortion and contraception have been deleted while misinformation on the feeds of social media users in Africa, Latin America and Asia has not been tackled

    Meta and Google are accused in a new report of obstructing information on abortion and reproductive healthcare across Africa, Latin America and Asia.

    MSI Reproductive Choices (formerly Marie Stopes International) and the Center for Countering Digital Hate claim the platforms are restricting local abortion providers from advertising, but failing to tackle misinformation that undermines public access to reproductive healthcare.

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      Chrome launches native build for Arm-powered Windows laptops

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · 3 days ago - 17:18 · 1 minute

    Extreme close-up photograph of finger above Chrome icon on smartphone.

    Enlarge (credit: Getty Images )

    We are quickly barreling toward an age of viable Arm-powered Windows laptops with the upcoming launch of Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite CPU. Hardware options are great, but getting useful computers out of them will require a lot of new software, and a big one has just launched: Chrome for Windows on Arm.

    Google has had a nightly "canary" build running since January , but now it has a blog post up touting a production-ready version of Chrome for "Arm-compatible Windows PCs powered by Snapdragon." That's right, Qualcomm has a big hand in this release, too, with its own press announcement touting Google's browser release for its upcoming chip. Google promises a native version of Chrome will be "fully optimized for your PC’s [Arm] hardware and operating system to make browsing the web faster and smoother."

    Apple upended laptop CPU architecture when it dumped Intel and launched the Arm-based Apple Silicon M1. A few years later and Qualcomm is ready to answer—mostly by buying a company full of Apple Silicon veterans—with the upcoming launch of the Snapdragon X Elite chip. Qualcomm claims the X Elite will bring Apple Silicon-class hardware to Windows, but the chip isn't out yet—it's due for a "mid-2024" release. Most of the software you'll be running will still be written in x86 and need to go through a translation layer, which will slow things down, but at least it won't have to be your primary browser.

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      Le Google Pixel 7a est à -47% sur le site d’AliExpress, dépêchez-vous !

      news.movim.eu / JournalDuGeek · 3 days ago - 16:28

    Google Pixel 7a

    Profitez des dernières heures des jours anniversaires sur AliExpress pour profiter de cette offre de -47% sur le Google Pixel 7a !
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      Where’d my results go? Google Search’s chatbot is no longer opt-in

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · 4 days ago - 19:38 · 1 minute

    Google's generative search results turn the normally stark-white results page into a range of pastels.

    Enlarge / Google's generative search results turn the normally stark-white results page into a range of pastels. (credit: Google)

    Last year Google brought its new obsession with AI-powered chatbots to Google Search with the launch of the " Search Generative Experience, " or "SGE." If you opted in, SGE intercepted your Google search queries and put a giant, screen-filling generative AI chatbot response at the top of your search results. The usual 10 blue links were still there, but you had to scroll past Google's ChatGPT clone to see them. That design choice makes outgoing web links seem like a legacy escape hatch for when the chatbot doesn't work, and Google wants to know why more people haven't opted in to this.

    Barry Schwartz at Search Engine Land reports that Google is going to start pushing SGE out to some users, even if they haven't opted in to the "Labs experiment." A Google spokesperson told the site SGE will be turned on for a "subset of queries, on a small percentage of search traffic in the US." The report says "Google told us they want to get feedback from searchers who have not opted into SGE specifically. This way they can get feedback and learn how a more general population will find this technology helpful."

    Citing his conversation with Google, Schwartz says some users automatically see Chatbot results for queries where Google thinks a chatbot "can be especially helpful." Google will turn on the feature for "queries that are often more complex or involve questions where it may be helpful to get information from a range of web pages—like 'how do I get marks off painted walls.'"

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