Tech news from around the world, rewritten in plain English.
SparkyOS is a new Arch-based distro from the team behind the Debian-based SparkyLinux. It ships as a full local install on a USB key that runs entirely from the drive without touching the computer's hard disk, using the Xfce desktop.
Shin Su-myeong, father of Shin Jang-ho, CEO of ITCEN Entec and president of the Korea IT Service Industry Association (ITSA), has died. The funeral hall is Room 31 at the Funeral Hall of Seoul St. Mary's Hospital, The Catholic University of Korea, with the funeral procession on the 26th at 6:30 a.m. and burial at Dongducheon Yeyewon.
Audi is reportedly in talks with Huawei to develop a China-specific next-generation A8 using Huawei's vehicle architecture, according to Germany's Manager Magazin. The model would be built in China, with production targeted before the end of 2028, and no agreement has been finalized.
Google has added an AI feature to the CarPlay version of Google Maps for iPhone users, letting drivers call up Gemini's voice mode while on the road. The feature was previously available only to Android Auto users, and it is set to arrive with Maps version 26.43.1, though the rollout schedule is unclear.
Panasonic Operational Excellence, a subsidiary of Panasonic Holdings, said an employee working on an internal HR system project uploaded data containing personal information of about 334,000 people, including current and former Panasonic Group employees and their families, to an external generative AI service that the company bans for internal use. The company says it was caused by an internal rule violation rather than an external attack, and that no public disclosure or specific harm has been confirmed so far.
Spotify confirmed on an investor call that it is introducing QR-code verification to stop account sharing on its Family and Duo plans, calling the stricter checks a "routine improvement" of existing methods. Co-CEO Alex Norström said the plan makes up a significant share of subscribers and that the process is ongoing rather than a one-time measure.
Bucheon City in Gyeonggi Province is offering 24-hour administrative consultation via KakaoTalk. During working hours residents are connected directly to human counselors, while nights, weekends and holidays are handled by a generative AI chatbot that answers based on information published on the city's official website.
Linus Torvalds says he is using AI to help write Linux kernel code, drawing criticism from some commentators. Kernel maintainers have decided to deprecate the Assisted-by tag, so contributors no longer need to disclose AI use in submissions.
heise+ has published a workshop on using Apple Calendar on iPhone, iPad, and Mac. The guide covers account setup, recurring events, sharing, calendars on your own NAS, and more. Only a preview of the article is available without a heise+ subscription.
Phishing emails impersonating ticket sites such as e+ (eplus), Lawson Ticket and Pia, falsely telling recipients they won a lottery and urging payment, have surged. The Anti-Phishing Council reported that e+ phishing reports rose about 6.5-fold in one week, from 85 to 552, between mid-September and mid-October.
Lawmaker Seo Cheon-ho urged the Ministry of Science and ICT to consult sufficiently with the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, which is reviewing scaling back or ending the PASS mobile identity service run by the three mobile carriers. He warned of potential losses of about 70 billion won and said the service has 13.8 million users. Deputy Prime Minister Bae Kyung-hoon said the government would review the matter.
Park24 said its subsidiary Times Mobility will pay affected users of the car-sharing service Times Car a condolence payment equivalent to ¥3,000 after a personal data leak discovered in September. The payments cover 1,464,800 records of identity document images, and the company expects to book about ¥5.5 billion in special losses.
OpenAI said South Korea ranks third worldwide in weekly active users of its AI assistant 'dots' and fifth-tier globally for paid ChatGPT Pro subscribers. Kim Kyung-hoon, OpenAI Korea's general manager, presented the figures at 'OpenAI DevDay Exchange Seoul' on the 22nd, saying Korean users show high interest in AI.
Fortuna Maru will take part in Busan's project to expand its AI services, developing administration-specialized AI models for the city. The company formed a consortium with Klion and Egiya Factory, and the expansion adds a multi-model operating system to the city's AI Bugi Official platform.
An arcade claw machine has been spotted displaying an Android Recovery Console instead of a playable game, a glitch The Register reader Scott photographed at a venue next to a roller rink. The screen shows the "release-keys" text and a prompt for removable storage on a blue background resembling a blue screen of death.
A heise+ commentary revisits the EU's 2022 agreement to cut the fleet CO₂ limit for new cars to zero grams by 2035. It says the deal, though framed as technology-neutral, effectively ends the combustion engine for new car registrations in the EU, and that the compromise has since been under pressure.
H.I.S. Hotel Holdings, a subsidiary of travel company HIS that runs the "Henn na Hotel" chain, said on October 22 that about 140,000 hotel members' names and email addresses may have been leaked. The data was held by Laxragy Cloud, an outside firm that delivers the company's newsletters and operates the email service "BlastMail"; Laxragy Cloud said on October 21 that it had suspended the service after the intrusion.
At a National Assembly audit, lawmakers challenged Coupang Eats over commission calculations that include merchant-funded discounts and over the effectiveness of its shared-growth fee system. CEO Kim Myung-gyu admitted the company did not accept the Fair Trade Commission's corrective recommendation on fees and pledged to review improvements on reviews, refunds, and delivery costs.
Molloco will hold its annual flagship event, 'Molocon 26', next month in Seoul and is accepting registrations. The company says it links app ads, connected TV, and commerce media into one AI system to help marketers reach the right customers at the right moment.
JR East's code payment service teppay, launched October 20, accepts only the My Number Card for electronic identity verification (eKYC), rejecting driver's licenses, passports, and health insurance cards. JR East said it adopted public personal authentication via the card to ensure secure verification, reduce impersonation risk, and unify verification procedures.
SpaceX is negotiating with infrastructure companies, including Crown Castle, to secure access to more than 80,000 mobile cell sites across the United States, according to Bloomberg sources. The move is seen as a step toward making SpaceX a fourth nationwide mobile carrier. The company has not commented on the reports.
In an interview, Google software engineer Viviana Sutedjo, who works on AI security, discusses how prompt injections work and how Google protects its AI agents. The article is a paywalled preview, so the full details of Google's measures are not available in the excerpt. The excerpt describes how attacks have evolved from simple language tricks to hidden calendar invitations that manipulate AI agents summarizing emails.
inDrive, the ride-hailing company known for letting passengers and drivers negotiate fares, has signed a memorandum of understanding with Pony.ai and Nvidia to explore robotaxi testing in Astana, Kazakhstan, starting in the first half of 2027. Testing will initially include a safety operator, with fully driverless rides as the eventual goal. Pony.ai would supply its Gen-7 robotaxis, while Nvidia would provide its Hyperion platform and Halos safety system.
Police and traffic experts in south-western Germany are warning that tuning of pedelecs and e-scooters to exceed legal speed limits is becoming more widespread. Authorities say the modifications are often easy to make, sometimes through the scooter's app, and that tuned vehicles add to an already serious accident risk.