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If you thought everyone was into chatbots, think again: about half of US adults never use the AI tools, and most have no interest in starting. According to Pew Research Center, older adults are the least likely to use chatbots, with roughly three-quarters of those aged 65 and older saying they never use them. That may be expected, yet more than half (58 percent) of adults aged 50 to 64 don't use them either. Those aged 18 to 29 use chatbots the most, at 66 percent, however even a third of them say they never do. About four in ten under 50 report not using them at all. Across all adults, 51 percent are chatbot refuseniks, so users are - just barely - the minority. Pew asked non-users to choose from five possible reasons. Six in ten cited simple lack of interest as a major factor, followed by the more familiar concerns of data privacy and the accuracy of chatbot answers. Some Reg readers might suspect older people avoid chatbots because they lack tech-savviness, but fewer than a third cited not knowing how to use them as a major reason. The authors of the survey also found fewer than one in five worried about what others might think of them for using the technology, so social stigma isn’t the deterrent either. Adoption also differs by race and ethnicity: non-users are more likely to be white, black or hispanic than Asian, according to Pew’s survey. The AI dodgers don't look ready to budge. Two-thirds (67 percent) say they’re unlikely to use the technology in the next 12 months, including 40 percent who say they’re not at all likely to change their mind. Another 12 percent are unsure, and just 5 percent of non-users think they'll probably try a chatbot over the next year. Perhaps abstainers were put off by a bad experience, such as Microsoft’s notorious racist chatbot Tay a decade ago. Or something more recent, like the Trump administration’s official America.gov service, which at the time of writing still displays a hotdog if you type that into the prompt. ®

Ikea začala nabízet novinku pojmenovanou Stengrönska. Jde o budík na noční stolek, který v sobě obsahuje i teploměr/vlhkoměr, nenápadnou lampičku a bezdrátovou nabíječku. Zatím se prodává jen v Japonsku a Číně, kde stojí v přepočtu okolo 700 Kč. Zařízení měří 170 × 160 × 36 mm a na čelní straně má ...

Ledger has confirmed that some of its devices distributed through Southeast Asian reseller CryptoBilis were compromised with a hardware implant that drained users' cryptocurrency wallets. [...]

Kanadský vývojář Anthony Sistilli vytvořil ironický DIY projekt parodující kamerové systémy Flock, s cílem názorně demonstrovat rizika masového sledování jaké provozují tyto komerční ALPR systémy. Z levné IP kamery a vlastního ML softwaru (napsaného s pomocí SI circa za 20 minut, kód se mi bohužel nepodařilo dohledat) běžícího v laptopu sestavil jednoduchý systém, který detekuje výhradně policejní vozidla, zaznamenává jejich SPZ a loguje jejich GPS polohu. Reakce na sebe dlouho nenechala čekat, místní policie navštívila Anthonyho u něj doma s výtkou, že mapování pohybu hlídek ohrožuje její bezpečnost. Celé video.

Attackers remotely defrosted refrigerators at multiple French supermarket chains overnight in a cyberattack that reportedly targeted Danfoss refrigeration controllers. [...]

Some meetings last longer than it took attackers to jump on a newly disclosed security flaw this week. Within hours, they were already testing it. That's not much time to read the warning, let alone do something about it. But speed is only part of the problem. A secure connection didn't always mean a safe destination. People offering to fix a ransomware mess had questions to answer themselves.Ravie Lakshmananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/[email protected]

Word a další aplikace nabídnou nový typ písma Michelangelus. • Microsoft písmo ve svých nástrojích uvede do konce roku. • Michelangelus je také k dispozici zdarma ke stažení.

A new Windows malware loader called AvisLoader uses encrypted peer-to-peer communications to make command-and-control infrastructure harder to disrupt. Varonis researchers explain how the malware uses ClickFix delivery, shortcut-based persistence, and remote command execution capabilities. [...]

Retail giant Ahold Delhaize, one of the world's largest food retail chains, confirmed today that it had to take some systems offline in response to a "cybersecurity incident" affecting its network. [...]

Tesla po devíti letech odkladů zahájila sériové dodávky elektrického tahače • Nový model výrazně odlehčil a dostal praktická stahovací boční okénka • Nabíjení nabízí vysoký výkon ale rozvoji stále brání chybějící infrastruktura

Yandex engineers are working to restore services after Ukraine launched drone strikes on three of its five Russian datacenters. The strikes began overnight on October 7-8, "seriously damaging" Yandex's Sasovo datacenter and leading to a total shutdown. Ukrainian drones struck again on the morning of October 9, targeting the company's Kaluga datacenter, resulting in part of its infrastructure being taken offline. Dima Pirogov, head of Yandex's fintech division, confirmed via Telegram on Sunday morning that a third strike targeted the company's Vladimir site, which supports Yandex Pay. A day later, services remain offline, although Pirogov said users' money is safe. "I'm very sorry I can't tell you yet that everything is working again," the exec wrote. "The team continues to restore services and is checking every step. When it comes to your money, it's important to us not just to restore Yandex Pay as quickly as possible, but also to ensure that everything is working reliably. "I understand that you're not waiting for words, but for access to your money. And I understand how hard it is to wait when you can't use it. We can't give you a precise timeline for the restoration yet, but we promise: we won't stop until the service is back online." Yandex Pay is the company's digital payments service. Users can make online and in-store purchases, pay in installments, and split bills with friends and family. It's also integrated into online shopping experiences. It is comparable to Apple Pay or Google Pay, while Yandex more broadly offers services similar to Google's. Yandex said engineers are prioritizing the most-used services, and reported that access to the Alice AI assistant, Mail, Maps, Search, and Taxi is being restored, but other features remain offline. The company's status page lists widespread outages across Yandex Cloud, its public cloud platform, following the attacks. Updates from the maintenance team describe partial availability despite the outage indicators. They suggest that some customers may be able to access certain features, such as Yandex Cloud Console and API, but availability remains inconsistent across the platform. In its most recent update, the company said: "The Yandex Cloud platform is still operating in a limited mode. Our specialists continue restoration work around the clock. The technical support team receives an increased number of requests, so the response time can be increased. "Our recommendations continue to be relevant. We recommend using alternative sites for hosting and reserving resources." Internet monitoring organization Netblocks reported that Yandex Cloud's network connectivity was at 30 percent of normal levels on October 11. Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky said the drone attacks were a response to Russia's own, which had targeted datacenters in Kyiv. The BBC reported that in September, Russian drone strikes targeted a business center in the capital city, killing four people and damaging a datacenter, which in turn resulted in around 100,000 households losing internet access. The attacks led to other knock-on effects, such as public transport boards not displaying information in Lutsk. Kyiv's attack on the Vladimir site on Sunday morning came hours after controversial comments from US president Donald Trump, who accused Zelensky of wanting "to make problems for the world" by continuing to attack Russian oil refineries. Trump went on to say that it was time for Ukraine to elect a new president after Zelensky said measures should not be taken that allow Russia to generate more revenue to fund its war. Zelensky was referring to a deal between Trump and Putin to release diesel from Russia to the US and the rest of the world. Later that day, the US president claimed Russia and Ukraine had agreed to an "energy ceasefire" to halt attacks on each other's energy infrastructure. Kyiv said it was unaware of the agreement before Trump announced it on his social media platform, but was willing to halt attacks on Russian energy infrastructure if Moscow reciprocated. Russia launched a missile attack on a Ukrainian power plant hours later. ®

IDC has bad news for enterprises upgrading PCs: don’t expect prices to come down any time soon.

PC prices are already high due to constrained supplies and surging memory and component costs. Geopolitical tensions and an uncertain global economy won’t make the situation any better.

“A weaker economy could soften demand further, and with prices still high and supply constrained, the outlook for the remainder of 2026 and going into 2027 could deteriorate,” IDC analysts said in a press release last week.

The third quarter of 2026 was a disaster for PC makers, with shipments falling 20.1% year over year.

PC makers and their channel partners stocked up on inventory earlier in the year ahead of memory-driven price hikes. The focus in the third quarter was on clearing out that leftover inventory amid dried-up demand.

“Channels are now worried about carrying too much inventory into a market where high prices are suppressing demand,” said Jitesh Ubrani, a research director at IDC.

Within the existing inventory, low-cost PCs are harder to find. For example, HP is making higher-priced PCs a larger part of its product mix so it can generate higher revenue amid declining PC shipments.

HP’s chief financial officer, Karen Parkhill, said in an August earnings call that the company is prioritizing “higher-value unit placements, repricing for higher commodity costs” to offset the lower volume of PC shipments.

“We continue to expect memory and storage costs to increase further as a percentage of the bill of materials,” Parkhill said.

Enterprises picked up new PCs earlier in anticipation of price increases and are now pulling back, said analyst Jack Gold of J. Gold Associates. That’s partially because PC makers are passing higher memory and component costs on to customers, Gold said.

Many new PCs have AI hardware accelerators and qualify as AI PCs. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella at an event last week said AI PCs accounted for 40% of PC shipments. HP said on its earnings call that AI PCs made up 46% of its PC shipments in the fiscal quarter that ended July 31.

The big question is whether AI PCs have any utility. HP is rolling out its own on-device AI software, called HP IQ, on its PCs to enhance the user experience. HP PCs also have an AI-based security tool from Wolf Security that protects against BIOS-level intrusion, said Ketan Patel, the company’s president of personal systems, on the August earnings call.

But companies are rethinking the typical three-to-four-year PC upgrade cycle because most AI work still happens in the cloud, Gold said. “They have been spending big on infrastructure and cloud services to implement new AI solutions, which don’t need the latest PC hardware,” he said.

Hardware makers are now building even faster PCs — dubbed “agentic AI PCs”— that cut token costs by running AI locally. Microsoft has dubbed that hardware as “Builder PCs.”

Agentic AI PCs with GPUs have more horsepower to run high-end LLMs and cut cloud-based token costs. But those PCs, such as Microsoft’s Surface Laptop Ultra and HP’s ZBook Ultra G3a mobile workstation, cost more than $2,500, which may be too expensive for cash-strapped enterprises.

Agentic AI PCs could help cut token costs, but “whether that really means the category has been reinvented is still up for debate,” Technalysis Research analyst Bob O’Donnell said in a research note.

Lenovo topped IDC’s global PC shipment chart in the third quarter of 2026. The company shipped 14.9 million units, a 22.6% decline from the same quarter last year, and held a 23.8% market share.

HP was in second place, with 10.3 million units shipped, a 30.9% year-over-year decline. The company held a 16.5% market share.

Dell was third, with 7.6 million PC shipments, a year-over-year decline of 25%. Apple was in better shape than its Windows counterparts, with 5.9 million units shipped, down 11.3% year over year. Asus and other PC makers accounted for the remainder.

GitLab warned users today to immediately patch a maximum-severity vulnerability in the CI/CD Regular Expression Compiler that could let remote attackers run arbitrary code on targeted instances. [...]

Alza má nové svítilny privátní značky Campgo, jsou to ty nejvýkonnější. • Eclipse a Wildfire dosvítí přes 300 metrů, v Eco režimu vydrží desítky hodin. • Lákají na kovové tělo, magnet, zámek a voděodolnost.

Microsoft has reminded customers that systems running Windows 11 23H2 Enterprise, Education, and IoT Enterprise editions will stop receiving security updates next month. [...]

The personal AI agents rollout is going about as smoothly as expected: Amazon now blocks Meta's Muse because it doesn't identify itself as a bot while browsing; Instinct keeps raising privacy concerns; and the horror stories from pretty much every personal AI agent keep piling up. Regardless, the tech world is mesmerized by the capabilities and potential of these services. Less than a year [email protected]

Někteří majitelé peněženek Ledger v jihovýchodní Asii přišli o kryptoměny. • Ledger našel v zařízení poškozeného neautorizovaný hardwarový implantát. • Přidaná elektronika pod displejem zachytí seed a odešle ho přes LTE.

Cryptocurrency hardware maker Ledger has temporarily paused sales of its products via CryptoBilis following reports of stolen funds linked to devices sold by the reseller. On Friday, the company said it was investigating reports of loss of funds from users in Southeast Asia who had purchased products from CryptoBilis. The incident is said to have resulted in losses totaling more than $86 Ravie Lakshmananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/[email protected]