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Hands on with Fitbit’s personal health coachHands on with Fitbit’s personal health coachContributor

GoogleBlog - Fri, 12/05/2025 - 14:00
Learn more about the personal health coach, Fitbit’s AI-powered tool for learning more about your fitness, health, sleep and more.Learn more about the personal health coach, Fitbit’s AI-powered tool for learning more about your fitness, health, sleep and more.
Categories: Technology

4 new ways Chrome autofill will simplify your holidays4 new ways Chrome autofill will simplify your holidaysSenior Product Manager, Chrome

GoogleBlog - Fri, 12/05/2025 - 14:00
Chrome can now remember your loyalty card and flight details for faster submission.Chrome can now remember your loyalty card and flight details for faster submission.
Categories: Technology

Netflix To Buy Warner Bros. In $72 Billion Cash, Stock Deal

Slashdot.org - Fri, 12/05/2025 - 13:18
Netflix is buying Warner Bros. Discovery in an $82.7 billion deal that gives it HBO, iconic franchises, and major studio infrastructure. "Warner Bros. shareholders will receive $27.75 a share in cash and stock in Netflix," notes Bloomberg. "The total equity value of the deal is $72 billion, while the enterprise value of the deal is about $82.7 billion." From the report: Prior to the closing of the sale, Warner Bros. will complete the planned spinoff of its networks division, which includes cable channels such as CNN, TBS and TNT. That transaction is now expected to be completed in the third quarter of 2026, Netflix said in a statement. With the purchase, Netflix becomes owner of the HBO network, along with its library of hit shows like The Sopranos and The White Lotus. Warner Bros. assets also include its sprawling studios in Burbank, California, along with a vast film and TV archive that includes Harry Potter and Friends. Netflix said it expects to maintain Warner Bros.' current operations and build on its strengths, including theatrical releases for films, a point that had been a cause of concern in Hollywood. Netflix said the deal will allow it to "significantly expand" US production capacity and invest in original content, which will create jobs and strengthen the entertainment industry. Still, the combination is also expected to create "at least $2 billion to $3 billion" in cost savings per year by the third year, according to the statement. U.S. Senator Mike Lee, a Republican from Utah who leads the Senate antitrust committee, said the acquisition "should send alarm to antitrust enforcers around the world." "Netflix built a great service, but increasing Netflix's dominance this way would mean the end of the Golden Age of streaming for content creators and consumers," Lee wrote in a post on X. U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren called it an antitrust "nightmare" that would harm workers and consumers. "A Netflix-Warner Bros would create one massive media giant with control of close to half of the streaming market -- threatening to force Americans into higher subscription prices and fewer choices over what and how they watch, while putting American workers at risk," Warren said on Friday. "It would mean more price hikes, ads, & cookie cutter content, less creative control for artists, and lower pay for workers," she said in a post on X. "The media industry is already controlled by a few corporations with too much power to censor free speech. The gov't must step in."

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Google Play Books marks 15 years of booksellingGoogle Play Books marks 15 years of booksellingDirector, Product Management, Google Play Books

GoogleBlog - Fri, 12/05/2025 - 13:00
In honor of our 15th anniversary as a bookseller, here are 15 ways that Google Play Books can help you find and read great books.In honor of our 15th anniversary as a bookseller, here are 15 ways that Google Play Books can help you find and read great books.
Categories: Technology

Why One Man Is Fighting For Our Right To Control Our Garage Door Openers

Slashdot.org - Fri, 12/05/2025 - 12:17
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the New York Times: A few years ago, Paul Wieland, a 44-year-old information technology professional living in New York's Adirondack Mountains, was wrapping up a home renovation when he ran into a hiccup. He wanted to be able to control his new garage door with his smartphone. But the options available, including a product called MyQ, required connecting to a company's internet servers. He believed a "smart" garage door should operate only over a local Wi-Fi network to protect a home's privacy, so he started building his own system to plug into his garage door. By 2022, he had developed a prototype, which he named RATGDO, for Rage Against the Garage Door Opener. He had hoped to sell 100 of his new gadgets just to recoup expenses, but he ended up selling tens of thousands. That's because MyQ's maker did what a number of other consumer device manufacturers have done over the last few years, much to the frustration of their customers: It changed the device, making it both less useful and more expensive to operate. Chamberlain Group, a company that makes garage door openers, had created the MyQ hubs so that virtually any garage door opener could be controlled with home automation software from Apple, Google, Nest and others. Chamberlain also offered a free MyQ smartphone app. Two years ago, Chamberlain started shutting down support for most third-party access to its MyQ servers. The company said it was trying to improve the reliability of its products. But this effectively broke connections that people had set up to work with Apple's Home app or Google's Home app, among others. Chamberlain also started working with partners that charge subscriptions for their services, though a basic app to control garage doors was still free. While Mr. Wieland said RATGDO sales spiked after Chamberlain made those changes, he believes the popularity of his device is about more than just opening and closing a garage. It stems from widespread frustration with companies that sell internet-connected hardware that they eventually change or use to nickel-and-dime customers with subscription fees. "You should own the hardware, and there is a line there that a lot of companies are experimenting with," Mr. Wieland said in a recent interview. "I'm really afraid for the future that consumers are going to swallow this and that's going to become the norm." [...] For Mr. Wieland, the fight isn't over. He started a company named RATCLOUD, for Rage Against the Cloud. He said he was developing similar products that were not yet for sale.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

15 examples of what Gemini 3 can do15 examples of what Gemini 3 can doContributor

GoogleBlog - Fri, 12/05/2025 - 12:00
Learn how Gemini 3, Google’s latest model, can help you learn anything, build anything and plan anything.Learn how Gemini 3, Google’s latest model, can help you learn anything, build anything and plan anything.
Categories: Technology

Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers now have higher rate limits for Google Antigravity.Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers now have higher rate limits for Google Antigravity.

GoogleBlog - Fri, 12/05/2025 - 11:20
The response to Google Antigravity — our new agentic development platform — has been incredible and we’re working to meet this demand. One way we’re doing this is by off…
Categories: Technology

QuickTime Turns 34

Slashdot.org - Fri, 12/05/2025 - 11:16
On Dec. 2, QuickTime turned 34, and despite its origins in Apple's chaotic 1990s (1991 to be exact), "it's still the backbone of video on our devices," writes Macworld's Jason Snell. That includes MP4 and Apple's immersive video formats for Vision Pro. From the report: By the late '80s and early '90s, digital audio had been thoroughly integrated into Macs. (PCs needed add-on cards to do much more than issue beeps.) The next frontier was video, and even better, synchronized video and audio. There were a whole lot of challenges: the Macs of the day were not really powerful to decode and display more than a few frames per second, which was more of a slideshow than a proper video. Also, the software written to decode and encode such video (called codecs) was complex and expensive, and there were lots of different formats, making file exchange unreliable. Apple's solution wasn't to invent entirely new software to cover every contingency, but to build a framework for multimedia creation and playback that could use different codecs as needed. At its heart was a file that was a container for other streams of audio and video in various formats: the QuickTime Movie, or MOV. [...] QuickTime's legacy lives on. At a recent event I attended at Apple Park, Apple's experts in immersive video for the Vision Pro pointed out that the standard format for immersive videos is, at its heart, a QuickTime container. And perhaps the most ubiquitous video container format on the internet, the MP4 file? That standard file format is actually a container format that can encompass different kinds of audio, video, and other information, all in one place. If that sounds familiar, that's because MPEG-4 is based on the QuickTime format. Thirty-four years later, QuickTime may seem like a quaint product of a long-lost era of Apple. But the truth is, it's become an integral part of the computing world, so pervasive that it's almost invisible. I'd like to forget most of what happened at Apple in the early 1990s, but QuickTime definitely deserves our appreciation.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

New research from Google Workspace reveals how young leaders are using AI at work.New research from Google Workspace reveals how young leaders are using AI at work.

GoogleBlog - Fri, 12/05/2025 - 11:00
Google Workspace has released findings from our second survey that looks at how people aged 22-39 are using AI at work. Commissioned by Workspace in partnership with the…
Categories: Technology

Gemini 3 Pro: the frontier of vision AIGemini 3 Pro: the frontier of vision AIProduct Manager

GoogleBlog - Fri, 12/05/2025 - 11:00
Build with Gemini 3 Pro, the best model in the world for multimodal capabilities.Build with Gemini 3 Pro, the best model in the world for multimodal capabilities.
Categories: Technology

Contractors With Hacking Records Accused of Wiping 96 Government Databases

Slashdot.org - Fri, 12/05/2025 - 10:15
Two Virginia brothers Muneeb and Sohaib Akhter, previously convicted of hacking the U.S. State Department, were rehired as federal contractors and are now charged with conspiring to steal sensitive data and destroy government databases after being fired. "Following the termination of their employment, the brothers allegedly sought to harm the company and its U.S. government customers by accessing computers without authorization, issuing commands to prevent others from modifying the databases before deletion, deleting databases, stealing information, and destroying evidence of their unlawful activities," the Justice Department said in a Wednesday press release. BleepingComputer reports: According to court documents, Muneeb Akhter deleted roughly 96 databases containing U.S. government information in February 2025, including Freedom of Information Act records and sensitive investigative documents from multiple federal agencies. One minute after deleting a Department of Homeland Security database, Muneeb Akhter also allegedly asked an artificial intelligence tool for instructions on clearing system logs after deleting a database. The two defendants also allegedly ran commands to prevent others from modifying the targeted databases before deletion, and destroyed evidence of their activities. The prosecutors added that both men wiped company laptops before returning them to the contractor and discussed cleaning out their house in anticipation of a law enforcement search. The complaint also claims that Muneeb Akhter stole IRS information from a virtual machine, including federal tax data and identifying information for at least 450 individuals, and stole Equal Employment Opportunity Commission information after being fired by the government contractor. Muneeb Akhter has been charged with conspiracy to commit computer fraud and destroy records, two counts of computer fraud, theft of U.S. government records, and two counts of aggravated identity theft. If found guilty, he faces a minimum of two years in prison for each aggravated identity theft count, with a maximum of 45 years on other charges. His brother, Sohaib, is charged with conspiracy to commit computer fraud and password trafficking, facing a maximum penalty of six years if convicted.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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