Technology

Berlin, 30 April 2025

The Document Foundation is proud to release LibreOffice 25.2.3.

This release includes dozens of bug fixes and compatibility enhancements that further improve the suite’s performance, reliability and interoperability.

It is available on Microsoft Windows, Mac and Linux.

https://blog.documentfoundation.org/blog/2025/04/30/announcing-libreoffice-25-2-3/

LibreOffice is a powerful, free and open source office suite.

It is used by millions of citizens, universities and businesses in over 100 countries. It is developed by The Document Foundation, a German non-profit.

About us.

We believe that users should have the freedom to run, copy, distribute, study, change and improve the software that we distribute. We campaign for these freedoms because we believe that everyone deserves them.

The community behind LibreOffice is the heart of the project, without which we would not have the resources to continue developing our software. We invite everyone to join us and help us to make LibreOffice known and accessible to all 🙌.

https://www.libreoffice.org/about-us/who-are-we/

I can't say I'm surprised...

Tesla has confirmed it has given up on plans to make a Cybertruck range extender to achieve the range it originally promised on the electric pickup truck.

It started refunding deposits for the $16,000 extra battery pack.

When Tesla unveiled the production version of the Cybertruck in late 2023, two main disappointments were the price and the range.

The tri-motor version, the most popular in reservation tallies before production, was supposed to have over 500 miles of range and start at $70,000.

Tesla now sells the tri-motor Cybertruck for $100,000 and only has a range of 320 miles.

The dual-motor Cybertruck was supposed to cost $50,000 and have over 300 miles of range. In reality, it starts at $80,000 and has 325 miles of range.

Archive link: https://archive.is/CGbaE

Paywall removed: https://archive.is/ydJJN

An AI avatar made to look and sound like the likeness of a man who was killed in a road rage incident addressed the court and the man who killed him: “To Gabriel Horcasitas, the man who shot me, it is a shame we encountered each other that day in those circumstances,” the AI avatar of Christopher Pelkey said. “In another life we probably could have been friends. I believe in forgiveness and a God who forgives. I still do.”

It was the first time the AI avatar of a victim—in this case, a dead man—has ever addressed a court, and it raises many questions about the use of this type of technology in future court proceedings. 

The avatar was made by Pelkey’s sister, Stacey Wales. Wales tells 404 Media that her husband, Pelkey’s brother-in-law, recoiled when she told him about the idea. “He told me, ‘Stacey, you’re asking a lot.’”

Tesla has confirmed its latest bait-and-switch: Cybertruck owners will not get the Autosteer feature they paid for.

Instead, they will get a year of ‘Supervised Full Self-Driving’.

When Tesla started delivering the Cybertruck in late 2023, the software was incomplete, especially regarding its Advanced Driver Assist System (ADAS) features like ‘Supervised (FSD) Full Self-Driving’, which was included in the price of all early Cybertrucks.

It took Tesla almost a year to start releasing its FSD on the Cybertruck.

After Tesla stopped making new Cybertruck Foundation Series, which are fully loaded with all options, buyers started to have the option of buying the $8,000 FSD package or keeping only the Autopilot package, which is included in the price.

Autopilot’s two main features are Traffic Aware Cruise Control and Autosteer. The first is self-explanatory, while Autosteer is Tesla’s name for active lane keeping.

The vast majority of Tesla vehicle owners don’t buy the FSD package.

As of now, 16 months after Tesla started delivering the Cybertruck, the automaker has yet to deliver Autosteer on the electric pickup truck.

Today, Tesla started reaching out to Cybertruck owners to let them know that it won’t make Autosteer available for Cybertruck owners who haven’t bought FSD:

“As we improve our Autopilot technology, our feature sets will change. Accordingly, Autosteer will not be available for Cybertruck outside of Full Self-Driving (Supervised).“

Instead, Tesla offers a year of free FSD trial to Cybertruck owners.

More details in the article.

My favorite part is how they're now saying both "full self-driving' and "supervised".

Archive link: https://archive.is/1w64R

The proposal comes after Republicans killed a federal FCC program that provided a $30 discount off the broadband bills of low-income Americans. The Republicans in question claimed they killed the popular program to save money, but a follow up study showed that the program more than paid for itself (by a factor of four) because it helped expand access to remote healthcare, employment, and education.

My state fighting a good fight. We’re flawed, but we sometimes get it right.

X has received executive orders from the Indian government requiring X to block over 8,000 accounts in India, subject to potential penalties including significant fines and imprisonment of the company’s local employees. The orders include demands to block access in India to accounts belonging to international news organizations and prominent X users.

…

X is exploring all possible legal avenues available to the company. Unlike users located in India, X is restricted by Indian law in its ability to bring legal challenges against these executive orders. However, we encourage all users who are impacted by these blocking orders to seek appropriate relief from the courts.

Meta is reportedly developing what it calls a "super sensing" type of facial recognition technology to its smart glasses lineup. A new report from The Information said that Meta is developing software for the glasses that has the ability to recognize people by name and keep better track of what users are doing throughout the day.

The company originally planned to include similar technology in its first wave of smart glasses, but abandoned that effort due to privacy concerns.

"We set out to solve one of the most common frustrations we hear — finding and changing settings on your PC — using the power of AI agents," Navjot Virk, corporate vice president of Windows Experiences at Microsoft, said in a blog post on Tuesday. "An agent uses on-device AI to understand your intent and with your permission, automate and execute tasks."

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.today/post/28904943

Date: May 2025 Affected Regions: Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Yaroslavl, Tver, Tula, Nizhny Novgorod, Kaluga, Leningrad, Kursk, Mordovia (notably Saransk), and others. Confirmed Impact: Mobile internet partially or completely disabled across 30+ urban areas.

Official Narrative: "Security Measures" According to regional telecoms and unofficial channels, mobile internet services were intentionally cut off due to the threat of incoming Ukrainian drone strikes. Authorities cite "preventive action" and the need to limit open communications during heightened alert.

Reality Check: Tactical Blackout or Info Control? While defensive countermeasures against UAV threats are plausible, the scope and consistency of the outages raise questions. Independent observers and local reports suggest that the disruption may have also served to:

• Obscure real-time footage of military or infrastructural damage.
• Prevent citizens from coordinating information during attacks.
• Suppress potential unrest or panic in targeted regions.
• Mask technological vulnerabilities in regional air defense systems.

Strategic Implications:

• Operational transparency within the Russian Federation continues to decline.
• Digital infrastructure is increasingly weaponized as a tool of internal control.
• Civilian communication tools are deprioritized in favor of regime stability narratives.

The situation highlights a key paradox: While the Kremlin projects strength through cyber capabilities and digital sovereignty, it is simultaneously cutting its own population off from the global information sphere whenever reality threatens to contradict the official line.

Broader Context: These shutdowns occur alongside:

• Russia’s ongoing struggle with technological sanctions, including deteriorating access to Western telecom hardware.
• Failures of domestic tech replacements (e.g., the collapse of “Rossgram,” billed as a Russian alternative to Instagram).
• Escalating cross-border drone warfare, now reaching the interior of the country.

Sources:

• Local media reports
• Telecom user data (indirect confirmations from VK/TG channels)
• Internet monitoring watchdogs (e.g., NetBlocks, IsDown)
• Satellite imagery and OSINT (to be updated)

Hashtags: #Russia #UAV #DroneWarfare #InternetShutdown #DigitalAuthoritarianism #Censorship #InfoControl #CyberWarfare #FediverseReports #OSINT

apple watch shipments declining since 2022