Slashdot reader eastlight_jim writes:

Scientists from the University of Oxford have today published a study in Clinical Cancer Research which shows that they can use a technique called NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance) metabolomics analysis to identify patients with cancer. Specifically, they identify patients with cancer from within a population of generally unwell patients with non-specific symptoms like fatigue and weigh-loss — a traditionally hard-to-diagnose cohort.

The technique works because the NMR identifies small molecules called metabolites in the blood of patients and this information can then be used by machine learning to recognise patterns of metabolites specific to cancer, as well as identifying patients whose cancer has already spread.

The Guardian reports:
If validated, the test could enable cancer patients to be identified earlier, when they are more likely to respond to treatment, and help flag up who could benefit from early access to drugs designed to tackle metastatic cancer.

The test can also tell if the disease has spread.

There is currently no clear route through which someone with nonspecific symptoms that could be cancer is referred for further investigation…. “The problem we’ve had in the past is that if they do have cancer, that cancer is growing all the time, and when they come back the cancers are often quite advanced,” said Dr James Larkin, of the University of Oxford, who was involved in the research. Although it is difficult to know precisely how many individuals fall into this category, “it is likely to be tens of thousands of patients across the UK,” Larkin said.

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An anonymous reader writes: Salesforce, the world’s largest customer relationship management platform, said that customers must have a form of multi-factor authentication (MFA) turned on starting next month, or they won’t be able to access their accounts. “Beginning February 1, 2022, Salesforce will require customers to use MFA in order to access Salesforce products,” the company said last month. Salesforce said that users will be able to choose from using security keys, an authenticator app, or an OS biometrics systems to secure accounts. MFA solutions that rely on sending one-time passcodes via email, phone, or SMS messages won’t be allowed “because these methods are inherently vulnerable to interception, spoofing, and other attacks,” Salesforce explained.

“We encourage users to register multiple verification methods so they have a backup in case they forget or lose their primary method,” the company added.

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European history professor Ada Palmer says the 18th-century philosopher’s short story “Micromégas” qualifies as an early example of science fiction. The post Was Voltaire the First Sci-Fi Author? appeared first on WIRED.

The Entertainment Software Association is shifting the Electronic Entertainment Expo to an online-only event out of concerns around the pandemic. VentureBeat reports: “Due to the ongoing health risks surrounding COVID-19 and its potential impact on the safety of exhibitors and attendees, E3 will not be held in person in 2022,” the ESA said in a statement to GamesBeat. “We remain incredibly excited about the future of E3 and look forward to announcing more details soon.” That means the show will likely take place online this summer for the second year in a row, as COVID-19 concerns pushed the June 2021 show into an online-only event and scuttled the 2020 event entirely. Asked to clarify if there will be an online event, the ESA said it is “excited about the possibilities of an online event.”

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An anonymous reader quotes a report from XDA Developers: In January of 2020, Sonos filed two lawsuits against Google, claiming that the latter stole its multiroom speaker technology and infringed on 100 patents. In September, Sonos then sued Google alleging that the company’s entire line of Chromecast and Nest products violated five of Sonos’ wireless audio patents. A judge (preliminarily) ruled in favor of Sonos. Now it’s gone from bad to worse for Google, as the preliminary findings have been finalized by the U.S. International Trade Commission. As a result, Google is not allowed to import any products that violate patents owned by Sonos, which Sonos argues includes Google Pixel phones and computers, Chromecasts, and Google Home/Nest speakers.

These products produced by Google are often made outside of the United States and imported, hence why this is a big deal for Google. In the ruling (PDF) (via The New York Times), Google was also served a cease & desist in order to stop violating Sonos’ patents. It has been theorized that as a result of the lawsuit, Google had removed Cast volume controls in Android 12, though it was recently added back with the January 2022 security patch. Sonos has previously said that it had proposed a licensing deal to Google for patents the company was making use of, but that neither company was able to reach an agreement. […] There are still two more lawsuits pending against Google filed by Sonos, meaning that it’s unlikely this is the last we’ve heard of this spat.

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Snap is suing the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) for rejecting its application to trademark the word “spectacles” for its digital eyewear camera device. But the USPTO has maintained that “spectacles” is a generic term for smart glasses and that Snap’s version “has not acquired distinctiveness,” as required for a trademark. The Verge reports: In its complaint filed Wednesday in US District Court in California, Snap claims that the Spectacles name “evokes an incongruity between an 18th century term for corrective eyewear and Snap’s high-tech 21st century smart glasses. SPECTACLES also is suggestive of the camera’s purpose, to capture and share unusual, notable, or entertaining scenes (i.e., “spectacles”) and while also encouraging users to make ‘spectacles’ of themselves.” Snap first introduced its camera-equipped Spectacles in 2016 (“a wearable digital video camera housed in a pair of fashionable sunglasses,” according to its complaint), which can take photos and videos while the user wears them and connects with the Snap smartphone app. […]

Snap’s new complaint posits that there’s been enough media coverage of Spectacles, bolstered by some industry awards and its own marketing including social media, to support its claim that consumers associate the word “spectacles” with the Snap brand. Snap first filed a trademark application for Spectacles in September 2016, “for use in connection with wearable computer hardware” and other related uses “among consumer electronics devices and displays.” During several rounds of back-and-forth with the company since then, the USPTO has maintained that the word “spectacles” appeared to be “generic in connection with the identified goods,” i.e. the camera glasses. Snap continued to appeal the agency’s decision. In a November 2021 opinion, the USPTO’s Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (pdf) upheld the decision, reiterating that the word “spectacles” was a generic term that applied to all smart glasses, not just Snap’s version. Despite the publicity Snap claimed its Spectacles had received from its marketing and social media, the board noted in its opinion that Spectacles’ “social media accounts have an underwhelming number of followers, and the number of followers is surprisingly small,” which didn’t support the company’s argument that there had been a high enough level of consumer exposure to Snap’s Spectacles to claim that consumers associated the word with Snap’s brand.

In its Tuesday complaint, Snap’s attorneys argued that “spectacles is an old-fashioned term popular in the 18th century,” and that it “is not often used today in the United States,” especially by Snapchat’s young audience. “This indicates that modern-day usage of “spectacles” in the United States — especially among a younger demographic of consumers who are the relevant consumers of Snap’s SPECTACLES camera product — is not commonly understood to mean eyeglasses, and certainly not a wireless-enabled video camera product.” But the USPTO appeal board said in November that the evidence didn’t support that argument, and that the word “spectacles” still retains its generic meaning and therefore can’t be trademarked. The board noted that in its own marketing, Snap had demonstrated that its Spectacles “eyeglasses form is a feature, function and characteristic of the camera, not only functionally but aesthetically.” Snap’s lawsuit, which names acting USPTO director Drew Hirshfeld, seeks to have the appeal board’s November decision reversed.

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At CES in Las Vegas this evening, Sony’s Chairman, President and CEO Kenichiro Yoshida showed off a brand new prototype of its Vision S concept electric car, and announced that the Sony Group is starting a new division — the Sony Mobility Inc — which will start commercializing its electric vehicles. TechCrunch reports: On the CES stage during the Sony press conference, the company showed off its existing Sony Vision-S sedan, which was revealed at CES last year. This year, it also flexed a new model in the lineup, the Sony Vision-S SUV prototype. “The excitement we received after we showed off the Vision-S really encouraged us to further consider how we can bring creativity and technology to change the experience of moving from one place to another,” said Yoshida, before revealing the new Vision-S SUV prototype. “This is our new Vision-S SUV. Vision-S has been developed on a foundation of safety, adaptability and entertainment. Safety has been our No. 1 priority in creating a comfortable mobility experience. That has not changed when building this SUV. A total of 40 sensors are installed inside and outside of the vehicle to monitor safety.

“In terms of adaptability, we have connectivity that enables us to build a vehicle that continuously evolves. It also makes it possible to personalize the cabin for each user. With 5G, it enables high speed, high capacity and low-latency connectivity between the in-vehicle system and the cloud. The Vision-S also evolves mobility as an entertainment space,” said Yoshida. “The Vision-S also evolves mobility as an entertainment space, including gaming experience and audio. We have learned more about mobility through our exploration of Vision-S and through our partners who have supported this effort.” There’s been a lot of EV announcements today. Not only did GM reveal an electric version of the Chevy Silverado, but Chrysler announced plans to go all-electric by 2028, starting with the Airflow, “a concept crossover that appears to be close to ready for production,” reports Ars Technica.

BMW also unveiled color-changing paint for its vehicles that relies on the E-ink electronic paper technology found in e-readers like the Kindle.

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At CES 2022, BMW unveiled color-changing paint for its vehicles that relies on the E-ink electronic paper technology found in e-readers like the Kindle. Engadget reports: [N]o, this futuristic feature is nowhere near production ready despite appearing at the show on a live demonstration vehicle, dubbed the BMW iX Flow featuring E Ink. The electrophoretic coloring material itself is applied as a vehicle body wrap but works just like it e-ink displays do in your Kindle. The wrap is embedded with millions of microcapsules each containing a negatively-charged white pigment and a positively charged-black pigment. Depending on the setting, applying an electrical charge to the material will cause either the white or black pigments to rise to the top of the microcapsule, changing the vehicle’s color in moments.

While the current iteration can only swap between a pair of colors, the palette could eventually be expanded to display a rainbow’s worth of differing shades. “This gives the driver the freedom to express different facets of their personality or even their enjoyment of change outwardly, and to redefine this each time they sit into their car,” Stella Clarke, Head of Project for the BMW iX Flow featuring E Ink, said in a prepared statement. […] E-ink exterior displays could also prove useful in more practical applications such as changing colors depending on the weather to increase a vehicle’s battery life (and therefore, range) in cold climates or reduce the need for air conditioning in balmy weather.

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Arbix Finance, an audited and supposedly trustworthy yield farming platform, has been flagged as a ‘rugpull,’ deleting its site, Twitter, and Telegram channel and transferring $10 million worth of deposited cryptocurrency. Bleeping Computer reports: Rugpulls, otherwise known as “exit scams,” are when pseudo-anonymous platforms or cryptocurrencies are created twith the ultimate goal of collecting funds for an allegedly legitimate “service” and then disappear with deposited funds. Because decentralized networks are inherently untrustworthy, entities like CertiK attempt to evaluate them through audits that analyze a token’s smart contracts for signs of fraud, vulnerabilities, privacy problems, etc. In Arbix’s case, CertiK’s conducted an audit on November 19th, 2021, whose findings had initially been a reason for users to trust Arbix Finance.

However, today CertiK tweeted that Arbix is now classified as a rugpull after the token’s smart contract was detected minting 10 million ARBIX to addresses under the owner’s control and then dumping them for Ethereum. The operators of Arbix also moved $10 million in funds deposited by users to “unverified pools,” where they were converted to Ethereum. The scammers then transferred the Ethereum to Tornado.cash, which acts as a mixer to make it harder to trace the funds. The funds and their movements are being traced, but the chances of them being recovered are slim at this point.

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A class action lawsuit has been filed in California against Google, Apple and the CEOs of both tech giants for allegedly violating antitrust laws, according to a press release. The complaint calls for the breakup of Google and Apple into separate and independent companies in keeping with the precedent of the of Standard Oil company into Exxon, Mobile, Conoco, Amoco, Sohio, Chevron and others, the release stated. PYMNTS.com reports: Charges in the suit allege that Google and Apple have agreed that Apple would keep out of the internet search business against Google, according to the release. It also claims Google shares its search profits with Apple and gives Apple preferential treatment for all Apple devices; annual multi-billion-dollar payments by Google to Apple not to compete in the search business; suppression of smaller competitors to keep them from the search sector; and acquiring competing companies. Allegations also include higher advertising rates than rates that would be in a competitive system, the release stated.

Attorneys are seeking an end to the alleged billion-dollar payments to Apple from Google and asking the court to prohibit non-compete agreements between the two companies and end the profit-sharing agreement and the preferential treatment for Google on Apple devices, according to the release. “These powerful companies abused their size by unlawfully foreclosing and monopolizing major markets which in an otherwise free enterprise system would have created jobs, lowered prices, increased production, added new competitors, encouraged innovations and increased the quality of services in the digital age,” Joseph M. Alioto of Alioto Law, who is representing the plaintiffs, said in the release.

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