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Authorities tighten restrictions on data centres amid AI boom <br> Governments from New York to Amsterdam are imposing new restrictions on data-centre development as concerns grow over electricity demand, water consumption and the environmental impact of infrastructure needed to support the AI boom. Below are some key examples: US Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro signed an executive order that would require companies ​setting up AI data centres in the state to meet environmental and transparency safeguards and secure local community approval for the projects. The &zwnj;order, effective immediately, removes all data centres from the state&#39;s Fast Track permit program, and bars any office or agency under Shapiro&#39;s jurisdiction from signing non-disclosure agreements with data centre developers. Texas Governor Greg Abbott ordered a pause on approvals of new data centre projects through the state&#39;s grid interconnection process, citing concerns ...

Apple AI tools come to China after two-year delay <br> Apple began on Wednesday a long-delayed trial rollout of in-house artificial intelligence tools for Chinese users, playing catch-up to homegrown smartphone makers in a major market for the United States giant. The on-device features dubbed &quot;Apple Intelligence&quot; were first released in the US and other countries in autumn 2024, marking the firm&#39;s first major push into generative AI. But strict Chinese regulatory requirements for the fast-evolving technology have held back its launch there&nbsp;&mdash; as well as the fact that models from Google&nbsp;and OpenAI, which Apple has used elsewhere to boost its own AI capabilities, are not available in the country. Apple, which has largely stayed out of the global AI investment frenzy, announced it will work with a Chinese partner &mdash; Alibaba&#39;s Qwen &mdash; to integrate more powerful AI features into devices alongside its...

NASA's Swift satellite telescope heads for fiery re-entry 22 years after launch <br> An ageing NASA satellite telescope that a robotic spacecraft was sent to retrieve on a failed rescue mission this&nbsp;summer&nbsp;was&nbsp;headed for a fiery re-entry into Earth&#39;s atmosphere on Wednesday, nearly 22 years after it was launched into orbit. The Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, weighing roughly 3,200 pounds (1,452 kg), was set to tumble out of orbit and burn up in the atmosphere somewhere over the tropics, with fragments surviving re-entry unlikely to threaten populated areas, according to NASA. The US Space Force has put the odds of harm coming to anyone on Earth at one chance in 2,100, NASA said in an online statement, projecting the time of re-entry at approximately 3:30am EST (0830 GMT). The Aerospace Corporation, a non-profit national security research entity, projected a re-entry window of 5:19am EST, plus or minus two hours. Our latest predict...

European supermarkets rush to patch vulnerabilities after region-wide fridge hack <br> European supermarkets targeted in a second wave of cyberattacks that cranked up ​fridge and freezer temperatures were rushing on Tuesday to upgrade their systems and protect themselves against further hacking attempts. Stores in &zwnj;eight European countries were forced to throw away vast quantities of food after hackers tampered with their fridges on Monday, in an attack identical to one that swept dozens of supermarkets in France three weeks ago. In Sweden, supermarket chain Coop said it was switching systems to 5G networks and modern modems, instead of 4G connections - a process that had ​already started since the French incident. Read:&nbsp;New cyberattack on supermarket fridges sweeps across Europe The seven stores hit by the attack are back up and running, but their refrigeration systems have ​been disconnected from the internet, a spokesperson said. Freezers at dozen...

Chinese researchers achieve breakthrough in underground positioning and navigation <br> A driver pulls into an underground car park in Xiongan New Area, north China&#39;s Hebei Province, taps &quot;park&quot; on a smartphone app and is guided directly to a vacant space. If the spot has already been taken, the system automatically recommends another. Behind this convenience is a technological breakthrough by a research team at the 54th Research Institute of China Electronics Technology Group Corporation (CETC54). Developed under the name &quot;Xingyuan,&quot; the BeiDou micro-base-station system for underground positioning and navigation extends high-precision location services into spaces beyond the reach of satellite signals. The project behind the system has passed a national acceptance review by China&#39;s Ministry of Science and Technology, marking an important advance in the country&#39;s efforts to build an integrated spatio-temporal netw...

Apple shares slide as higher memory costs fuel margin concerns <br> Apple shares fell about 4% in premarket trading on Tuesday after the tech giant warned that rising memory costs would squeeze gross margins, stoking investor concerns ​over persistent supply-chain uncertainties and mounting AI expenses. John Ternus delivered his first &zwnj;earnings report as Apple CEO on Monday, describing the memory-pricing environment as &quot;unprecedented&quot; while expecting costs to rise beyond the quarter ending in December. The iPhone maker has benefited from using memory purchased ​at lower prices, but that advantage is expected to diminish over ​time, leaving more of its purchases exposed to higher prices. Gross margins, ⁠which measure the percentage of revenue retained after the costs of making its products, was ​47.9% for the September quarter, down from June-quarter levels even when factoring in ​the impact of tariff refunds. Apple expects gross margin for the ...