https://hardware.slashdot.org/ News for nerds, stuff that matters en-us Copyright Slashdot Media. All Rights Reserved. 2026-04-22T22:19:09+00:00 Slashdot Media feedback@slashdot.org Technology 1970-01-01T00:00+00:00 1 hourly https://a.fsdn.com/sd/topics/topicslashdot.gif https://hardware.slashdot.org/ https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/26/04/22/2138211/ping-pong-robot-makes-history-by-beating-top-level-human-players?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed Sony AI's autonomous table-tennis robot Ace has become the first robot to compete against top-level human players. Reuters reports: Ace, created by the Japanese company Sony's AI research division, is the first robot to attain expert-level performance in a competitive physical sport, one that requires rapid decisions and precision execution, the project's leader said. Ace did so by employing high-speed perception, AI-based control and a state-of-the-art robotic system. There have been various ping-pong-playing robots since 1983, but until now they were unable to rival highly skilled human competitors. Ace changed that with its performances against human elite-level and professional players in matches following the rules of the International Table Tennis Federation, the sport's governing body, and officiated by licensed umpires. The project's goal was not only to compete at table tennis but to develop insights into how robots can perceive, plan and act with human-like speed and precision in dynamic environments. In matches detailed in the study, Ace in April 2025 won three out of five versus elite players and lost two matches against professional players, the top skill level in the sport. Sony AI said that since then Ace beat professional players in December 2025 and last month. "The success of Ace, with its perception system and learning-based control algorithm, suggests that similar techniques could be applied to other areas requiring fast, real-time control and human interaction -- such as manufacturing and service robotics, as well as applications across sports, entertainment and safety-critical physical domains," said Peter Durr, director of Sony AI Zurich and leader for Sony AI's project Ace. The findings have been published in the journal Nature.<p><div class="share_submission" style="position:relative;"> <a class="slashpop" href="http://twitter.com/home?status=Ping-Pong+Robot+Makes+History+By+Beating+Top-Level+Human+Players%3A+https%3A%2F%2Fhardware.slashdot.org%2Fstory%2F26%2F04%2F22%2F2138211%2F%3Futm_source%3Dtwitter%26utm_medium%3Dtwitter"><img src="https://a.fsdn.com/sd/twitter_icon_large.png"></a> <a class="slashpop" href="http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fhardware.slashdot.org%2Fstory%2F26%2F04%2F22%2F2138211%2Fping-pong-robot-makes-history-by-beating-top-level-human-players%3Futm_source%3Dslashdot%26utm_medium%3Dfacebook"><img src="https://a.fsdn.com/sd/facebook_icon_large.png"></a> </div></p><p><a href="https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/26/04/22/2138211/ping-pong-robot-makes-history-by-beating-top-level-human-players?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&amp;utm_medium=feed">Read more of this story</a> at Slashdot.</p> BeauHD 2026-04-22T22:00:00+00:00 robot state-of-the-art hardware 2 2,2,1,1,0,0,0 https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/04/22/1746252/google-unveils-two-new-ai-chips-for-the-agentic-era?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed Google announced two new tensor processing units (TPUs) for the "agentic era," with separate processors dedicated to training and inference. "With the rise of AI agents, we determined the community would benefit from chips individually specialized to the needs of training and serving," Amin Vahdat, a Google senior vice president and chief technologist for AI and infrastructure, said in a blog post. Both chips will become available later this year. CNBC reports: After years of producing chips that can both train artificial intelligence models and handle inference work, Google is separating those tasks into distinct processors, its latest effort to take on Nvidia in AI hardware. [...] None of the tech giants are displacing Nvidia, and Google isn't even comparing the performance of its new chips with those from the AI chip leader. Google did say the training chip enables 2.8 times the performance of the seventh-generation Ironwood TPU, announced in November, for the same price, while performance is 80% better for the inference processor. Nvidia said its upcoming Groq 3 LPU hardware will draw on large quantities of static random-access memory, or SRAM, which is used by Cerebras, an AI chipmaker that filed to go public earlier this month. Google's new inference chip, dubbed TPU 8i, also relies on SRAM. Each chip contains 384 megabytes of SRAM, triple the amount in Ironwood. The architecture is designed "to deliver the massive throughput and low latency needed to concurrently run millions of agents cost-effectively," Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google parent Alphabet, wrote in a blog post.<p><div class="share_submission" style="position:relative;"> <a class="slashpop" href="http://twitter.com/home?status=Google+Unveils+Two+New+AI+Chips+For+the+'Agentic+Era'%3A+https%3A%2F%2Ftech.slashdot.org%2Fstory%2F26%2F04%2F22%2F1746252%2F%3Futm_source%3Dtwitter%26utm_medium%3Dtwitter"><img src="https://a.fsdn.com/sd/twitter_icon_large.png"></a> <a class="slashpop" href="http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Ftech.slashdot.org%2Fstory%2F26%2F04%2F22%2F1746252%2Fgoogle-unveils-two-new-ai-chips-for-the-agentic-era%3Futm_source%3Dslashdot%26utm_medium%3Dfacebook"><img src="https://a.fsdn.com/sd/facebook_icon_large.png"></a> </div></p><p><a href="https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/04/22/1746252/google-unveils-two-new-ai-chips-for-the-agentic-era?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&amp;utm_medium=feed">Read more of this story</a> at Slashdot.</p> BeauHD 2026-04-22T18:00:00+00:00 google custom-silicon technology 16 16,14,11,11,3,0,0 https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/26/04/22/0422252/chinas-catl-reveals-621-mile-ev-battery-under-7-minute-charging?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed CATL unveiled a new wave of EV battery tech, "including a lighter battery pack rated for a 1,000-km (621-mile) driving range and an upgraded fast-charging battery that can go from 10 percent to 98 percent in under seven minutes," reports Interesting Engineering. From the report: The launches were made during a 90-minute event in Beijing ahead of the Beijing Auto Show, where automakers are expected to showcase next-generation EVs and connected technologies. CATL said its latest Qilin battery -- a high-energy-density pack often paired with nickel manganese cobalt (NMC) cells for long range and improved space efficiency -- can deliver a 1,000-km (621-mile) driving range. It is designed to deliver long range while reducing battery pack weight. The company said the product is aimed at automakers facing tighter efficiency rules in China and other markets. It also rolled out an upgraded Shenxing battery -- CATL's fast-charging lithium iron phosphate (LFP) pack -- that targets one of the biggest barriers to EV adoption: charging time. CATL said the pack can recharge from 10 percent to 98 percent in less than seven minutes. The new Shenxing battery marks a significant improvement over CATL's previous version, which charged from 5 percent to 80 percent in 15 minutes, according to Financial Times. [...] The company also announced plans to begin mass delivery of sodium-ion batteries in the fourth quarter. Sodium-ion technology is seen as a lower-cost alternative that could reduce dependence on lithium, cobalt, and nickel.<p><div class="share_submission" style="position:relative;"> <a class="slashpop" href="http://twitter.com/home?status=China's+CATL+Reveals+621-Mile+EV+Battery%2C+Under-7-Minute+Charging%3A+https%3A%2F%2Fhardware.slashdot.org%2Fstory%2F26%2F04%2F22%2F0422252%2F%3Futm_source%3Dtwitter%26utm_medium%3Dtwitter"><img src="https://a.fsdn.com/sd/twitter_icon_large.png"></a> <a class="slashpop" href="http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fhardware.slashdot.org%2Fstory%2F26%2F04%2F22%2F0422252%2Fchinas-catl-reveals-621-mile-ev-battery-under-7-minute-charging%3Futm_source%3Dslashdot%26utm_medium%3Dfacebook"><img src="https://a.fsdn.com/sd/facebook_icon_large.png"></a> </div></p><p><a href="https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/26/04/22/0422252/chinas-catl-reveals-621-mile-ev-battery-under-7-minute-charging?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&amp;utm_medium=feed">Read more of this story</a> at Slashdot.</p> BeauHD 2026-04-22T16:00:00+00:00 china new-and-improved hardware 73 73,71,65,52,10,4,3 https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/26/04/21/2019256/framework-laptop-13-pro-is-a-major-overhaul-for-the-modular-upgradeable-laptop?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Framework has been selling and shipping its modular, repairable, upgradable Laptop 13 for five years now, and in that time, it has released six distinct versions of its system board, each using fresh versions of Intel and AMD processors (seven versions, if you count this RISC-V one). The laptop around those components has gradually gotten better, too. Over the years, Framework has added higher-resolution screens in both matte and glossy finishes, a slightly larger battery, and other tweaked components that refine the original design. But so far, all of those parts have been totally interchangeable, and the fundamentals of the Laptop 13 design haven't changed much. That changes today with the Framework Laptop 13 Pro, which, despite its name, is less an offshoot of the original Laptop 13 and closer to a ground-up redesign. It includes new Core Ultra Series 3 chips (codenamed Panther Lake), Framework's first touchscreen, a new black aluminum color option, a larger battery, and other significant changes. And while it sacrifices some component compatibility with the original Laptop 13, displays and motherboards remain interchangeable, so Framework Laptop owners can buy the new Core Ultra board and owners of older Framework Laptop boards can pop one into a Pro to benefit from the new battery and screen. At 1.4kg (about 3 pounds), the Laptop 13 Pro is slightly heavier than the Laptop 13's 1.3kg, but it still stacks up well against the 14-inch M5 MacBook Pro (1.55kg, or 3.4 pounds). The Framework Laptop Pro will start at $1,199 for a DIY edition with a Core Ultra 5 325 processor, and no RAM, SSD, or operating system. A prebuilt version with Ubuntu Linux installed will start at $1,499, and Windows 11 will cost another $100 on top of that. A Core Ultra X7 358H version starts at $1,599 for a DIY edition, and a "limited batch" Core Ultra X9 388H version starts at $1,799. A bare motherboard with the Core Ultra 5 325 starts at $449, while a Core Ultra X7 358H board will cost $799. Pre-orders are available now, and begin shipping in June.<p><div class="share_submission" style="position:relative;"> <a class="slashpop" href="http://twitter.com/home?status=Framework+Laptop+13+Pro+Is+a+Major+Overhaul+For+the+Modular%2C+Upgradeable+Laptop%3A+https%3A%2F%2Fhardware.slashdot.org%2Fstory%2F26%2F04%2F21%2F2019256%2F%3Futm_source%3Dtwitter%26utm_medium%3Dtwitter"><img src="https://a.fsdn.com/sd/twitter_icon_large.png"></a> <a class="slashpop" href="http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fhardware.slashdot.org%2Fstory%2F26%2F04%2F21%2F2019256%2Fframework-laptop-13-pro-is-a-major-overhaul-for-the-modular-upgradeable-laptop%3Futm_source%3Dslashdot%26utm_medium%3Dfacebook"><img src="https://a.fsdn.com/sd/facebook_icon_large.png"></a> </div></p><p><a href="https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/26/04/21/2019256/framework-laptop-13-pro-is-a-major-overhaul-for-the-modular-upgradeable-laptop?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&amp;utm_medium=feed">Read more of this story</a> at Slashdot.</p> BeauHD 2026-04-21T21:00:00+00:00 hardware new-and-improved hardware 36 36,36,30,27,5,1,0 https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/26/04/21/1549243/global-growth-in-solar-the-largest-ever-observed-for-any-source?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed The IEA says 2025 marked a turning point for global energy, with solar posting the largest growth ever seen for any energy source and helping carbon-free power outpace rising demand. The trend led the agency to declare that the world has entered the "Age of Electricity." Ars Technica reports: The IEA report covers energy use, including the electrical grid, transportation, home heating, and other forms of consumption. As such, it can track how some of those uses are shifting, as electric vehicles displace some gasoline use and heat pumps replace gas and oil heating. It also saw a more global trend: The demand for electricity grew at twice the rate of overall energy demand. All of these went into the conclusion that we're starting the Age of Electricity. In terms of specifics, the IEA saw electric vehicle demand rise by nearly 40 percent, with electric car sales being a quarter of the total of cars sold last year. While that's having a measurable effect on electricity demand, it remains relatively small at the moment. It's almost certain to be contributing to the size of the rise in oil use last year: 0.7 percent. In absolute terms, that's less than half the average rise of the previous decade. [...] When it comes to supplying electrons for those alternatives, the central story is solar power. "The absolute increase of solar PV generation in 2025 is the largest ever observed for any source," the IEA says, "excluding years marked by rebounds from global economic shocks such as COVID-19." In other words, with nothing in particular driving the energy markets in 2025, Solar's growth was unprecedented. On its own, its growth covered a quarter of the rising demand for all forms of energy. If you limit it to electricity, increased solar production covered over two-thirds of the increased demand. Overall, solar generated over 2,700 terawatt-hours last year, more than double its output from three years earlier. It now accounts for over 8 percent of the world's total electricity production. Thirty individual countries installed at least a gigawatt of solar last year, and it is now the single largest grid source by capacity (though other sources still outproduce it at the moment).<p><div class="share_submission" style="position:relative;"> <a class="slashpop" href="http://twitter.com/home?status=Global+Growth+In+Solar+'the+Largest+Ever+Observed+For+Any+Source'%3A+https%3A%2F%2Fhardware.slashdot.org%2Fstory%2F26%2F04%2F21%2F1549243%2F%3Futm_source%3Dtwitter%26utm_medium%3Dtwitter"><img src="https://a.fsdn.com/sd/twitter_icon_large.png"></a> <a class="slashpop" href="http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fhardware.slashdot.org%2Fstory%2F26%2F04%2F21%2F1549243%2Fglobal-growth-in-solar-the-largest-ever-observed-for-any-source%3Futm_source%3Dslashdot%26utm_medium%3Dfacebook"><img src="https://a.fsdn.com/sd/facebook_icon_large.png"></a> </div></p><p><a href="https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/26/04/21/1549243/global-growth-in-solar-the-largest-ever-observed-for-any-source?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&amp;utm_medium=feed">Read more of this story</a> at Slashdot.</p> BeauHD 2026-04-21T16:00:00+00:00 power age-of-electricity hardware 117 117,116,93,78,16,8,4 https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/26/04/20/0346215/robots-beat-human-records-at-beijing-half-marathon?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: The winning runner at a Beijing half-marathon for humanoid robots finished the race today in 50 minutes and 26 seconds -- significantly faster than the human world record of 57 minutes recently set by Jacob Kiplimo. [...] [T]he winning time is a massive improvement over last year's race, when the fastest robot finished in two hours and 40 minutes. The Associated Press reports that this year's winner was built by Chinese smartphone maker Honor. It seems the winning robot wasn't actually the fastest, as a different Honor robot finished in 48 minutes and 19 seconds. But that one was remote controlled -- the 50:26 robot was autonomous and won due to weighted scoring. About 40% of participating robots competed autonomously, while the remaining 60% were remote controlled, according to Beijing's E-Town tech hub. Not all of them did as well as Honor's robots, with one robot falling at the starting line and another hitting a barrier.<p><div class="share_submission" style="position:relative;"> <a class="slashpop" href="http://twitter.com/home?status=Robots+Beat+Human+Records+At+Beijing+Half-Marathon%3A+https%3A%2F%2Fhardware.slashdot.org%2Fstory%2F26%2F04%2F20%2F0346215%2F%3Futm_source%3Dtwitter%26utm_medium%3Dtwitter"><img src="https://a.fsdn.com/sd/twitter_icon_large.png"></a> <a class="slashpop" href="http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fhardware.slashdot.org%2Fstory%2F26%2F04%2F20%2F0346215%2Frobots-beat-human-records-at-beijing-half-marathon%3Futm_source%3Dslashdot%26utm_medium%3Dfacebook"><img src="https://a.fsdn.com/sd/facebook_icon_large.png"></a> </div></p><p><a href="https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/26/04/20/0346215/robots-beat-human-records-at-beijing-half-marathon?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&amp;utm_medium=feed">Read more of this story</a> at Slashdot.</p> BeauHD 2026-04-20T15:00:00+00:00 robot are-we-really-surprised? hardware 88 88,88,82,72,8,6,2 https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/26/04/19/1836219/is-the-iran-war-driving-a-surge-of-interest-in-electric-cars?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed In October and through November, America's EV sales reached their lowest point since 2022 after government subsidies expired, remembers Time. "But first-quarter data for 2026 shows that used EV sales were 12% higher than the same time last year and 17% higher than the previous quarter. "One factor likely helping push buyers toward these cars is high gas prices, which recently topped $4.00 a gallon for the first time in four years," they write &mdash; but it's not just in the U.S. Instead, they argue the U.S.-Iran conflict "is driving a global surge of interest in electric vehicles..." In the U.K., electric car sales reached a record high, with 86,120 vehicles sold in March... The French online used-car retailer Aramisauto reported its share of EV sales nearly doubled from February 16 to March 9, rising to 12.7% from 6.5%, while sales of fueled models dropped to 28% of sales from 34%, and sales of diesel models dropped to 10% from 14%. Germany's largest online car market, mobile.de, told Reuters that the share of EV searches on its website has tripled since the start of March &mdash; from 12% to 36%, with car dealers receiving 66% more enquiries for used EVs than in February. South Korea reported that registrations for electric vehicles more than doubled in March compared to the prior year, due in part to rising fuel prices and government subsidies... In New Zealand, more than 1,000 EVs were registered in the week that ended on March 22, close to double the week before, making it the country's biggest week for electric vehicle registrations since the end of 2023, according to the country's Transport Minister, Chris Bishop. In America, Bloomberg also reports 605 high-speed EV charging stations switched on in just the first three months of 2025, "a 34% increase over the year-earlier period," according to their analysis of federal data. A data platform focused on EV infrastructure tells Bloomberg that speedier and more reliable chargers are convincing more drivers to go electric and use public plugs.<p><div class="share_submission" style="position:relative;"> <a class="slashpop" href="http://twitter.com/home?status=Is+the+Iran+War+Driving+a+Surge+of+Interest+in+Electric+Cars%3F%3A+https%3A%2F%2Fhardware.slashdot.org%2Fstory%2F26%2F04%2F19%2F1836219%2F%3Futm_source%3Dtwitter%26utm_medium%3Dtwitter"><img src="https://a.fsdn.com/sd/twitter_icon_large.png"></a> <a class="slashpop" href="http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fhardware.slashdot.org%2Fstory%2F26%2F04%2F19%2F1836219%2Fis-the-iran-war-driving-a-surge-of-interest-in-electric-cars%3Futm_source%3Dslashdot%26utm_medium%3Dfacebook"><img src="https://a.fsdn.com/sd/facebook_icon_large.png"></a> </div></p><p><a href="https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/26/04/19/1836219/is-the-iran-war-driving-a-surge-of-interest-in-electric-cars?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&amp;utm_medium=feed">Read more of this story</a> at Slashdot.</p> EditorDavid 2026-04-19T19:34:00+00:00 power charging-ahead hardware 268 268,266,243,229,39,17,8 https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/26/04/19/0222227/remembering-zip-drives---the-trendy-storage-technology-of-the-1990s?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed Back in the 1990s, floppy disks "had a mere capacity of 1.44MB," remembers XDA Developers, "which would soon become absolutely tiny for the increasingly large pieces of software that would come about." Floppy disks also felt quite fragile, and while we got "superfloppy" formats that were physically larger and had more capacity, those were pretty unwieldy as portable storage. Enter 1994, when a company called Iomega introduced its variant of a "superfloppy", the Zip drive... [T]he initial capacity introduced in 1994 reached a whopping 100MB, which was huge number when put up against the traditional floppy disk. Zip drives also had major performance benefits, with read speeds that could average 1.4MB/s, as opposed to the comparatively sluggish 16kB/s speeds of a traditional floppy disk, as well as a seek time of around 28ms seconds, whereas a floppy disk averaged 200ms. Zip drives weren't quite as fast as desktop HDDs, but for portable storage, this was a huge step forward... [I]n 1998, Iomega introduced the Zip 250 disks, which increased the capacity to 250MB, and, already in the new millennium, we got the Zip 750, which took that further to 750MB... It was an appealing enough proposition that big computer manufacturers like Dell started including a Zip drive in some of their PCs. Even Apple included Zip drives in some of its Power Macintosh models from the mid-to-late 90s. However, things started to shift towards the end of the decade as other portable formats rose to prominence, most notably CDs and USB flash drives. Despite their initial success, it didn't take long for users to start noticing a major drawback of Zip drives: many times, they would just fail. It wasn't necessarily related to age or any particular misuse of the disks, it just happened. It was a big enough phenomenon that it became known as the "click of death", and once it happened, your drive was gone. The problem was estimated by Iomega to affect around 0.5% of Zip drives, but while that sounds like a small number, when you sell products by the thousands, it becomes fairly widespread. It was a big enough issue that, in September 1998, a class action lawsuit was filed against Iomega for the common problems. Some of the complaints in that lawsuit were eventually dismissed by the court of Delaware, but others were not, and once the public became aware of the problems with Zip drives, it was hard for the brand to make a comeback. It didn't help that this happened around the same time as formats such as CDs were becoming more popular... And eventually, USB flash drives became the most popular way to carry data around since they were smaller and offered much faster speeds... Eventually, after seeing its profits plummet by the mid-2000s, Iomega was sold to a company called EMC in 2008, and in 2013, EMC and Lenovo formed a joint venture that took over Iomega's business and removed all of the Iomega branding from its products. The article does note that "as late as 2014, some aviation companies were still using Zip drives to distribute updates for navigation databases." Are there any Slashdot readers who still remember their own Zip drive experiences? Share your memories in the comments of that once-so-trendy storage technology from the 1990s...<p><div class="share_submission" style="position:relative;"> <a class="slashpop" href="http://twitter.com/home?status=Remembering+Zip+Drives+-+the+Trendy+Storage+Technology+of+the+1990s%3A+https%3A%2F%2Fhardware.slashdot.org%2Fstory%2F26%2F04%2F19%2F0222227%2F%3Futm_source%3Dtwitter%26utm_medium%3Dtwitter"><img src="https://a.fsdn.com/sd/twitter_icon_large.png"></a> <a class="slashpop" href="http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fhardware.slashdot.org%2Fstory%2F26%2F04%2F19%2F0222227%2Fremembering-zip-drives---the-trendy-storage-technology-of-the-1990s%3Futm_source%3Dslashdot%26utm_medium%3Dfacebook"><img src="https://a.fsdn.com/sd/facebook_icon_large.png"></a> </div></p><p><a href="https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/26/04/19/0222227/remembering-zip-drives---the-trendy-storage-technology-of-the-1990s?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&amp;utm_medium=feed">Read more of this story</a> at Slashdot.</p> EditorDavid 2026-04-19T07:34:00+00:00 storage going-to-the-hardware-storage hardware 179 179,178,175,169,31,7,1 https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/26/04/17/1623236/microsoft-increases-the-fat32-limit-from-32gb-to-2tb?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed Longtime Slashdot reader AmiMoJo writes: Windows has limited FAT32 partitions to a maximum of 32GB for decades now. When memory cards and USB drives exceeded 32GB in size, the only options were exFAT or NTFS. Neither option was well supported on other platforms at first, although exFAT support is fairly widespread now. In their latest blog post, Microsoft announced that the limit for FAT32 partitions is being increased to 2TB. Of course, that doesn't mean that every device that supports FAT32 will work flawlessly with a 2TB partition size, but at least there is a decent chance that older devices with don't support exFAT will now be usable with memory cards over 32GB.<p><div class="share_submission" style="position:relative;"> <a class="slashpop" href="http://twitter.com/home?status=Microsoft+Increases+the+FAT32+Limit+From+32GB+To+2TB%3A+https%3A%2F%2Fhardware.slashdot.org%2Fstory%2F26%2F04%2F17%2F1623236%2F%3Futm_source%3Dtwitter%26utm_medium%3Dtwitter"><img src="https://a.fsdn.com/sd/twitter_icon_large.png"></a> <a class="slashpop" href="http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fhardware.slashdot.org%2Fstory%2F26%2F04%2F17%2F1623236%2Fmicrosoft-increases-the-fat32-limit-from-32gb-to-2tb%3Futm_source%3Dslashdot%26utm_medium%3Dfacebook"><img src="https://a.fsdn.com/sd/facebook_icon_large.png"></a> </div></p><p><a href="https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/26/04/17/1623236/microsoft-increases-the-fat32-limit-from-32gb-to-2tb?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&amp;utm_medium=feed">Read more of this story</a> at Slashdot.</p> BeauHD 2026-04-17T17:00:00+00:00 storage long-overdue-changes hardware 83 83,83,72,65,21,13,7 https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/26/04/16/1916239/europe-has-maybe-6-weeks-of-jet-fuel-left?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed The head of the International Energy Agency warned that Europe may have only "six weeks or so" of jet fuel left if oil supplies remain blocked by the Iran war and the Strait of Hormuz stays disrupted. The Associated Press reports: IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol painted a sobering picture of the global repercussions of what he called "the largest energy crisis we have ever faced," stemming from the pinch-off of oil, gas and other vital supplies through the Strait of Hormuz. "In the past there was a group called 'Dire Straits.' It's a dire strait now, and it is going to have major implications for the global economy. And the longer it goes, the worse it will be for the economic growth and inflation around the world," he told The Associated Press. The impact will be "higher petrol (gasoline) prices, higher gas prices, high electricity prices," said Birol, speaking in his Paris office looking out over the Eiffel Tower. Economic pain will be felt unevenly and "the countries who will suffer the most will not be those whose voice are heard a lot. It will be mainly the developing countries. Poorer countries in Asia, in Africa and in Latin America," said the Turkish economist and energy expert who has led the IEA since 2015. But without a settlement of the Iran war that permanently reopens the Strait of Hormuz, "Everybody is going to suffer," he added. "Some countries may be richer than the others. Some countries may have more energy than the others, but no country, no country is immune to this crisis," he said.<p><div class="share_submission" style="position:relative;"> <a class="slashpop" href="http://twitter.com/home?status=Europe+Has+'Maybe+6+Weeks+of+Jet+Fuel+Left'%3A+https%3A%2F%2Fhardware.slashdot.org%2Fstory%2F26%2F04%2F16%2F1916239%2F%3Futm_source%3Dtwitter%26utm_medium%3Dtwitter"><img src="https://a.fsdn.com/sd/twitter_icon_large.png"></a> <a class="slashpop" href="http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fhardware.slashdot.org%2Fstory%2F26%2F04%2F16%2F1916239%2Feurope-has-maybe-6-weeks-of-jet-fuel-left%3Futm_source%3Dslashdot%26utm_medium%3Dfacebook"><img src="https://a.fsdn.com/sd/facebook_icon_large.png"></a> </div></p><p><a href="https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/26/04/16/1916239/europe-has-maybe-6-weeks-of-jet-fuel-left?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&amp;utm_medium=feed">Read more of this story</a> at Slashdot.</p> BeauHD 2026-04-16T20:00:00+00:00 power dire-straits hardware 360 360,345,281,243,44,25,14 https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/26/04/16/0030206/uk-households-to-be-urged-to-use-more-power-this-summer-as-renewables-soar?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed Longtime Slashdot reader AmiMoJo shares a report from the Guardian: Households will be called on to boost their consumption of Great Britain's record renewable energy this summer to help balance the power grid and lower energy bills. Under the new plans, people could be encouraged to run dishwashers and washing machines or charge up their electric vehicles when there is more wind and solar power than the electricity grid needs. The plan will be delivered with the help of energy suppliers, which may choose to offer heavily discounted or free electricity to their customers during specific periods when the energy system operator predicts there will be a surplus of electricity. Many suppliers already offer more than 2 million households the opportunity to pay lower rates for electricity used during off-peak hours but this will be the first time that the system operator will use this tool to help balance the grid. The National Energy System Operator (Neso) hopes that by issuing a market notice to call on energy users to increase their consumption it can avoid making hefty payments to turn wind and solar farms off when demand for electricity is low, which are ultimately paid for through energy bills.<p><div class="share_submission" style="position:relative;"> <a class="slashpop" href="http://twitter.com/home?status=UK+Households+To+Be+Urged+To+Use+More+Power+This+Summer+As+Renewables+Soar%3A+https%3A%2F%2Fhardware.slashdot.org%2Fstory%2F26%2F04%2F16%2F0030206%2F%3Futm_source%3Dtwitter%26utm_medium%3Dtwitter"><img src="https://a.fsdn.com/sd/twitter_icon_large.png"></a> <a class="slashpop" href="http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fhardware.slashdot.org%2Fstory%2F26%2F04%2F16%2F0030206%2Fuk-households-to-be-urged-to-use-more-power-this-summer-as-renewables-soar%3Futm_source%3Dslashdot%26utm_medium%3Dfacebook"><img src="https://a.fsdn.com/sd/facebook_icon_large.png"></a> </div></p><p><a href="https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/26/04/16/0030206/uk-households-to-be-urged-to-use-more-power-this-summer-as-renewables-soar?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&amp;utm_medium=feed">Read more of this story</a> at Slashdot.</p> BeauHD 2026-04-16T07:00:00+00:00 power good-problem-to-have hardware 151 151,147,132,124,36,19,13 https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/26/04/15/2143237/boston-dynamics-robot-dog-can-now-read-gauges-spot-spills-and-reason?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed Boston Dynamics has integrated Google DeepMind into its robotic dog Spot, giving it more autonomous reasoning for industrial inspections like spotting spills and reading gauges. Spot can also now recognize when to call on other AI tools. IEEE Spectrum reports: Boston Dynamics is one of the few companies to commercially deploy legged robots at any appreciable scale; there are now several thousand hard at work. Today the company is announcing that its quadruped robot Spot is now equipped with Google DeepMind's Gemini Robotics-ER 1.6, a high-level embodied reasoning model that brings usability and intelligence to complex tasks. [T]he focus of this partnership is on one of the very few applications where legged robots have proven themselves to be commercially viable: inspection. That is, wandering around industrial facilities, checking to make sure that nothing is imminently exploding. With the new AI onboard, Spot is now able to autonomously look for dangerous debris or spills, read complex gauges and sight glasses, and call on tools like vision-language-action models when it needs help understanding what's going on in the environment around it. "Advances like Gemini Robotics-ER 1.6 mark an important step toward robots that can better understand and operate in the physical world," Marco da Silva, vice president and general manager of Spot at Boston Dynamics, says in a press release. "Capabilities like instrument reading and more reliable task reasoning will enable Spot to see, understand, and react to real-world challenges completely autonomously." You can watch a demo of Spot's new capabilities on YouTube.<p><div class="share_submission" style="position:relative;"> <a class="slashpop" href="http://twitter.com/home?status=Boston+Dynamics'+Robot+Dog+Can+Now+Read+Gauges%2C+Spot+Spills%2C+and+Reason%3A+https%3A%2F%2Fhardware.slashdot.org%2Fstory%2F26%2F04%2F15%2F2143237%2F%3Futm_source%3Dtwitter%26utm_medium%3Dtwitter"><img src="https://a.fsdn.com/sd/twitter_icon_large.png"></a> <a class="slashpop" href="http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fhardware.slashdot.org%2Fstory%2F26%2F04%2F15%2F2143237%2Fboston-dynamics-robot-dog-can-now-read-gauges-spot-spills-and-reason%3Futm_source%3Dslashdot%26utm_medium%3Dfacebook"><img src="https://a.fsdn.com/sd/facebook_icon_large.png"></a> </div></p><p><a href="https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/26/04/15/2143237/boston-dynamics-robot-dog-can-now-read-gauges-spot-spills-and-reason?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&amp;utm_medium=feed">Read more of this story</a> at Slashdot.</p> BeauHD 2026-04-15T23:00:00+00:00 robot living-up-to-its-name hardware 91 91,89,87,82,8,4,3 https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/26/04/15/0712256/rivians-illinois-factory-will-run-on-recycled-ev-batteries?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Wall Street Journal: Rivian is joining with Redwood Materials to reuse EV batteries for energy storage -- the largest repurposed-battery energy storage system for an automotive manufacturer in the U.S., executives told The Wall Street Journal. Redwood Materials is a battery-recycling firm started by Tesla co-founder JB Straubel. Once completed later this year, Rivian's plant in Normal, Ill., will draw electricity from more than 100 Rivian EV batteries in an area the size of a small parking lot. It will reduce Rivian's dependence on the power grid during peak demand hours. "It saves Rivian money on what it takes to run the plant. It reduces the demand on the grid, which is great," Rivian Chief Executive Officer RJ Scaringe said in an interview. In the Rivian project, the batteries will come from either its test vehicles or from vehicles that have viable batteries but can no longer drive. Those batteries get sent off to Redwood, which integrates them into power storage units. Both companies declined to specify the cost of this project. The setup is expected to initially provide 10 megawatt-hours of energy, equivalent to about 1,000 home-energy battery storage units linked together, Redwood's Straubel said. "These batteries are already built," he said. "We need to integrate them and connect them together, but that can happen quite fast. They don't have to get imported from some other place." [...] Scaringe said that while branching into battery energy storage systems is "not a focus for us as a business right now," Rivian hopes to do more at its sites with Redwood. "There's hopefully a lot more, and there's going to be a lot of batteries we'll have access to," he said.<p><div class="share_submission" style="position:relative;"> <a class="slashpop" href="http://twitter.com/home?status=Rivian's+Illinois+Factory+Will+Run+On+Recycled+EV+Batteries%3A+https%3A%2F%2Fhardware.slashdot.org%2Fstory%2F26%2F04%2F15%2F0712256%2F%3Futm_source%3Dtwitter%26utm_medium%3Dtwitter"><img src="https://a.fsdn.com/sd/twitter_icon_large.png"></a> <a class="slashpop" href="http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fhardware.slashdot.org%2Fstory%2F26%2F04%2F15%2F0712256%2Frivians-illinois-factory-will-run-on-recycled-ev-batteries%3Futm_source%3Dslashdot%26utm_medium%3Dfacebook"><img src="https://a.fsdn.com/sd/facebook_icon_large.png"></a> </div></p><p><a href="https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/26/04/15/0712256/rivians-illinois-factory-will-run-on-recycled-ev-batteries?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&amp;utm_medium=feed">Read more of this story</a> at Slashdot.</p> BeauHD 2026-04-15T16:00:00+00:00 power reuse-and-recycle hardware 43 43,43,37,29,6,3,1 https://news.slashdot.org/story/26/04/14/2021208/microsoft-reveals-major-price-increase-for-all-surface-pcs?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed Microsoft has sharply raised prices across its Surface lineup as RAM and component costs keep climbing. "Both its midrange and flagship Surface lines are now significantly more expensive than they were just a few weeks ago, with the flagship Surface Laptop 7 and Surface Pro 11 now starting at $500 more than they launched at in 2024," reports Windows Central. From the report: The Surface Pro 12-inch, which was previously Microsoft's cheapest modern Surface PC at $799, now starts at $1,049. The flagship Surface Pro 13-inch, which originally launched for $999, now starts at an eyewatering $1,499. It's the same story for the Surface Laptop lines, with the entry-level 13-inch model originally priced at $899, now starting at $1,149. The 13.8-inch flagship Surface Laptop launched at $999, but now costs $1,499, with the 15-inch model now starting at $1,599. This means that Microsoft's midrange devices now cost more than the flagships did when they launched in 2024. [...] Microsoft has raised prices for all SKUs on offer, meaning the high end models are now more expensive too. A top end Surface Laptop 15-inch with Snapdragon X Elite, 64GB RAM and 1TB SSD storage now costs a staggering $3,649. To compare, the 16-inch MacBook Pro with an M5 Pro, 64GB RAM, and 1TB SSD is $3,299, and that comes with a significantly better display and much more power under the hood.<p><div class="share_submission" style="position:relative;"> <a class="slashpop" href="http://twitter.com/home?status=Microsoft+Reveals+Major+Price+Increase+For+All+Surface+PCs%3A+https%3A%2F%2Fnews.slashdot.org%2Fstory%2F26%2F04%2F14%2F2021208%2F%3Futm_source%3Dtwitter%26utm_medium%3Dtwitter"><img src="https://a.fsdn.com/sd/twitter_icon_large.png"></a> <a class="slashpop" href="http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fnews.slashdot.org%2Fstory%2F26%2F04%2F14%2F2021208%2Fmicrosoft-reveals-major-price-increase-for-all-surface-pcs%3Futm_source%3Dslashdot%26utm_medium%3Dfacebook"><img src="https://a.fsdn.com/sd/facebook_icon_large.png"></a> </div></p><p><a href="https://news.slashdot.org/story/26/04/14/2021208/microsoft-reveals-major-price-increase-for-all-surface-pcs?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&amp;utm_medium=feed">Read more of this story</a> at Slashdot.</p> BeauHD 2026-04-14T22:00:00+00:00 money sticker-shock news 46 46,46,44,42,14,8,4 https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/26/04/14/209219/california-ghost-gun-bill-wants-3d-printers-to-play-cop-eff-says?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed A proposed California bill would require 3D printer makers to use state-certified software to detect and block files for gun parts, but advocates at the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) say it would be easy to evade and could lead to widespread surveillance of users' printing activity. The Register reports: The bill in question is AB 2047, the scope of which, on paper, appears strict. The primary goal is clear and simple: to require 3D printer manufacturers to use a state-certified algorithm that checks digital design files for firearm components and blocks print jobs that would produce prohibited parts. [...] Cliff Braun and Rory Mir, who respectively work in policy and tech community engagement at the EFF, claim that the proposals in California are technically infeasible and in practice will lead to consumer surveillance. In a series of blog posts published this month, the pair argued that print-blocking technology -- proposals for which have also surfaced in states including New York and Washington - cannot work for a range of technical reasons. They argued that because 3D printers and other types of computer numerical control (CNC) machines are fairly simple, with much of their brains coming from the computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) software -- or slicer software -- to which they are linked, the bill would establish legal and illegal software. Proprietary software will likely become the de facto option, leaving open source alternatives to rot. "Under these proposed laws, manufacturers of consumer 3D printers must ensure their printers only work with their software, and implement firearm detection algorithms on either the printer itself or in a slicer software," wrote Braun earlier this month. "These algorithms must detect firearm files using a maintained database of existing models. Vendors of printers must then verify that printers are on the allow-list maintained by the state before they can offer them for sale. Owners of printers will be guilty of a crime if they circumvent these intrusive scanning procedures or load alternative software, which they might do because their printer manufacturer ends support." Braun also argued that it would be trivial for anyone who uses 3D printers to make small tweaks to either the visual models of firearms parts, or the machine instructions (G-code) generated from those models, to evade detection. Mir further argued that the bill offers no guardrails to keep this "constantly expanding blacklist" limited to firearm-related designs. In his view, there is a clear risk that this approach will creep into other forms of alleged unlawful activity, such as copyright infringement. [...] Braun and Mir have a list of other arguments against the bill. They say the algorithms are more than likely to lead to false positives, which will prevent good-faith users from using their hardware. Many 3D printer owners also have no interest in printing firearm components. Most simply want the freedom to print trinkets and spare parts while others use them to print various items and sell them as an income stream.<p><div class="share_submission" style="position:relative;"> <a class="slashpop" href="http://twitter.com/home?status=California+Ghost-Gun+Bill+Wants+3D+Printers+To+Play+Cop%2C+EFF+Says%3A+https%3A%2F%2Fhardware.slashdot.org%2Fstory%2F26%2F04%2F14%2F209219%2F%3Futm_source%3Dtwitter%26utm_medium%3Dtwitter"><img src="https://a.fsdn.com/sd/twitter_icon_large.png"></a> <a class="slashpop" href="http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fhardware.slashdot.org%2Fstory%2F26%2F04%2F14%2F209219%2Fcalifornia-ghost-gun-bill-wants-3d-printers-to-play-cop-eff-says%3Futm_source%3Dslashdot%26utm_medium%3Dfacebook"><img src="https://a.fsdn.com/sd/facebook_icon_large.png"></a> </div></p><p><a href="https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/26/04/14/209219/california-ghost-gun-bill-wants-3d-printers-to-play-cop-eff-says?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&amp;utm_medium=feed">Read more of this story</a> at Slashdot.</p> BeauHD 2026-04-14T21:00:00+00:00 printer technically-infeasible hardware 139 139,137,126,116,18,11,6 Search Slashdot stories query https://hardware.slashdot.org/search.pl