Verizon says it will give all its subscribers free access to its spam alert and call blocking tools, so long as their phones can support the features. From a report: The carrier originally rolled out those tools over a year ago as part of its $3-per-month Call Filter add-on. But starting in March, subscribers with compatible smartphones (including iPhone and Android devices) will be able fend off unwanted robocalls without having to pay extra. Verizon says it will release more info on how to sign up for the free tools near their launch date.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

I’ve started the next step in my plans for the Xcoders blog — I’m now posting links to:

• News about apps written by Xcoders,
• Interesting blog posts written by Xcoders,
• And news from elsewhere of interest to Xcoders.

In other words, it’s becoming a developer news blog with a Northwest point of view. And I think it will be worth following, even if you don’t attend Xcoders (or don’t even live in the Northwest).

If you’re on Micro.blog, you can follow Xcoders. And, of course, most importantly, it has an RSS feed and a JSON Feed so you can subscribe in your RSS reader.

Pick up a glass of water, lift a fork: you automatically figure out the best way to grasp each object. Now researchers at UC Berkeley have developed a robot that makes similar calculation, choosing on the fly whether to grab an object with pincers or lift it with a suction cup. From a report: Berkeley's two-armed robot, seen in this video clip [GIF file], first considers the contents of a bin and calculates each arm's probability of picking up an object. Its suction cup is good at grabbing smooth, flat objects like boxes, but bad at porous surfaces like on a stuffed animal. The pincers, on the other hand, are best with small, odd-shaped items. The system learned its pick-up prowess not from actual practice, but from millions of simulated grasps on more than 1,600 3D objects. In every simulation, small details were randomized, which taught the robot to deal with real-world uncertainty. The bot can pick up objects 95% of the time, at about 300 successful pickups per hour, its creators write in a paper published this week in Science Robotics. Warehouse robots that can move around merchandise are highly sought after. Amazon is reportedly working on its own "picker" robots, as are several robotics companies.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Government workers have less money to spend, and businesses are feeling the pinch.

Digital license plates are now allowed in Michigan thanks to a new state law. It will join California and Arizona as one of the few states in the US that allow digital license plates, allowing drivers to register their cars electronically and eschew old-school metal plates. From a report: To be clear, digital license plates consist of displays covered in glass that are mounted onto a frame. They come with their own computer chips and wireless communication systems. Some of the benefits of using digital licenses versus old metal ones are the ability to display Amber alerts or stolen vehicle messages when needed, but they could also make it easier to digitally renew license plates over the years. That comes at a price, though. Currently, they cost $499 for a basic version, and $799 for a premium version that features a GPS navigation add-on.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

EU diplomats raise questions about summit's agenda, noting that Iran did not appear to be invited.

Some 30,000 teachers who have gone without a contract for nearly a year walked off the job on Monday.

Court grants prosecutor request to hold Canadian national and four Kenyans for 30 days as investigation continues.

Constitutional Court poised to rule on an appeal over the outcome of the elections held in December.

What rights to South African shack-dwellers have?

Kevin C. Tofel, writing for About Chromebooks: I've been following the bug report that tracks progress on adding GPU acceleration for the Linux container in Chrome OS and there's good news today. The first two Chrome OS boards should now, or very soon, be able to try GPU hardware acceleration with the new startup parameter found last month. The bug report says the -enable-gpu argument was added to the Eve and Nami boards. There's only one Eve and that's the Pixelbook. Nami is used on a number of newer devices, including: Dell Inspiron 14, Lenovo Yoga Chromebook C630, Acer Chromebook 13, Acer Chromebook Spin 13, and HP X360 Chromebook 14.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Ian Cutress, reporting for AnandTech: AnandTech has seen documents and supporting information from multiple sources that show that Intel is planning to release a new high-end desktop processor, the Core i9-9990XE. These documents show that the processors will not be sold at retail; rather they will only be sold to system integrators, and then only through a closed online auction. This new processor will be the highest numbered processor in Intel's high-end desktop line. The current top processor is the i9-9980XE, an 18 core part with a base frequency of 3.5 GHz and a turbo frequency of 4.0 GHz. The i9-9990XE, on the other hand, is not simply the 9980XE with an increase in frequency. The Core i9-9990XE will be a 14 core processor, but with a base frequency of 4.0 GHz and a turbo frequency of 5.0 GHz. This makes it a super-binned 9940X.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Good morning sports fans!

Thanks to all the people who Like my posts here. I always look to see who's checking in. True story. A friend was talking, face-to-face, about one of my podcasts. I asked why he didn't Like it. He said he did. I checked later, and sure enough he had Liked it. Ever since I've been checking them every day, sometimes more than once.

For President Trump, space is the new battleground he would like to exploit.