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Azulle Access Arm is a fanless Linux PC stick with an RK3576 processor for $120 and up - Liliputing
Categories: Linux
All That Cheap Chinese Stuff Is Now Europe's Problem
President Trump's closure of the de minimis customs loophole in May -- which previously allowed Chinese packages valued under $800 to enter the U.S. duty-free -- has redirected a flood of cheap goods toward Europe, where similar exemptions for packages under $175.8 in the EU and $180 in the UK remain intact.
The shift has been swift: exports of low-value Chinese packages to the U.S. have dropped more than 40% since May, according to Chinese customs data, and the EU has this year overtaken the U.S. as the largest market for China's roughly $100 billion cheap package trade.
Shipments to Hungary and Denmark have quadrupled, and those to Germany, France, and the UK have risen 50% or more. Temu has recorded seven straight months of double-digit U.S. sales declines, per Consumer Edge data tracking credit and debit card transactions. Its European sales, on the other hand: up 56% in the EU and 46% in the UK since May compared to a year ago. The EU agreed last week to impose a $3.5 fee on imported small packages starting in July and to close the de minimis exemption entirely by 2028. The UK plans to follow in 2029.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
FTC: Instacart To Refund $60M Over Deceptive Subscription Tactics
alternative_right writes: Grocery delivery service Instacart will refund $60 million to settle FTC claims that it misled customers with false advertising and unlawfully enrolled them in paid subscriptions. Instacart partners with over 1,800 retailers to provide online shopping, delivery, and pickup services from nearly 100,000 stores across North America. Its platform serves millions of customers and is also used by roughly 600,000 independent shoppers across thousands of cities in Canada and the United States.
In a complaint filed on Thursday, the FTC claimed Instacart engaged in multiple deceptive tactics that raised costs for customers, including failing to provide advertised refunds and falsely advertising "free delivery" while still charging mandatory service fees that added up to 15% to order costs. The FTC said Instacart also advertised a "100% satisfaction guarantee," but typically offered only small credits toward future orders rather than full refunds to customers experiencing problems with deliveries or service. The company allegedly hid refund options from "self-service" menus, leading customers to believe credits were their only option.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
SteamOS Update Unlocks Better Performance and FPS Boosts for Linux Gaming Handheld Players - Tech Times
SteamOS Update Unlocks Better Performance and FPS Boosts for Linux Gaming Handheld Players Tech Times
Categories: Linux
SteamOS Update Unlocks Better Performance and FPS Boosts for Linux Gaming Handheld Players - Tech Times
SteamOS Update Unlocks Better Performance and FPS Boosts for Linux Gaming Handheld Players Tech Times
Categories: Linux
SteamOS Update Unlocks Better Performance and FPS Boosts for Linux Gaming Handheld Players - Tech Times
SteamOS Update Unlocks Better Performance and FPS Boosts for Linux Gaming Handheld Players Tech Times
Categories: Linux
SteamOS Update Unlocks Better Performance and FPS Boosts for Linux Gaming Handheld Players - Tech Times
SteamOS Update Unlocks Better Performance and FPS Boosts for Linux Gaming Handheld Players Tech Times
Categories: Linux
Microsoft AI Chief: Staying in the Frontier AI Race Will Cost Hundreds of Billions
Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman estimates that staying competitive in frontier AI development will require "hundreds of billions of dollars" over the next five to ten years, a sum that doesn't even account for the high salaries companies are paying individual researchers and technical staff. Speaking on a podcast, Suleyman compared Microsoft to a "modern construction company" where hundreds of thousands of workers are building gigawatts of CPUs and AI accelerators. There's "a structural advantage by being inside a big company," he said.
When asked whether startups could compete with Big Tech, Suleyman said "it's hard to say," adding that "the ambiguity is what's driving the frothiness of the valuations." Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in September he'd rather risk "misspending a couple of hundred billion" than fall behind in superintelligence.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
2025 Was the Beginning of the End of the TV Brightness War
The television industry's brightness war may have hit its inflection point in 2025, the year TCL and Hisense released the first consumer TVs capable of 5,000 nits under specific settings -- a figure that would have seemed absurd not long ago when manufacturers struggled to reach 2,000 nits. LG introduced Primary RGB Tandem OLED technology, moving from a three-stack panel design to a four-stack red-blue-green-blue configuration that the company claims can achieve 4,000 nits. The technology appears in the LG G5, Panasonic Z95B and Philips OLED950 and OLED910.
RGB mini-LED also emerged as a new category. The technology uses individual small red, green and blue LED backlights instead of white or blue LEDs paired with quantum dots. Hisense demonstrated it at CES 2025, TCL announced its Q10M for China, and Samsung unveiled its own version called micro-RGB. These sets range from $12,000 to $30,000. Sony has confirmed it will debut RGB TV technology in spring 2026. HDR content is currently mastered at a maximum of 4,000 nits. The situation echoes the audio industry's loudness war, The Verge points out, which peaked with Metallica's heavily compressed Death Magnetic in 2008.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Why we’re taking legal action against SerpApi’s unlawful scrapingWhy we’re taking legal action against SerpApi’s unlawful scrapingGeneral Counsel
We filed a suit today against the scraping company SerpApi.We filed a suit today against the scraping company SerpApi.
Categories: Technology
Uber is Hiring More Engineers Because AI is Making Them More Valuable, CEO Says
Uber is hiring more engineers rather than fewer because AI tools have made them "superhumans," CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said, pushing back against the industry trend of using productivity gains to justify headcount cuts. Speaking on the "On with Kara Swisher" podcast, Khosrowshahi noted that other tech executives see AI making engineers 20% to 30% more productive and conclude they need 20% to 30% fewer engineers. His view: every engineer has become more valuable. Between 80% and 90% of Uber's developers now use AI tools, according to Khosrowshahi.
The company no longer keeps scores of engineers on call to diagnose issues because AI agents are constantly monitoring systems, he said. The latest AI models are producing "hundreds of millions of dollars of benefit" for Uber, he said, describing the company as an "applied AI" business that harnesses the technology for pricing, payments, matching, routing, identification and customer complaints.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Find out what’s new in the Gemini app in December's Gemini Drop.Find out what’s new in the Gemini app in December's Gemini Drop.
Gemini Drops is our regular monthly update on how to get the most out of the Gemini app.
Categories: Technology
