Microsoft Office 2019 and 2021 for Mac will reportedly drop into "reduced functionality mode" on July 13, 2026, when a license-validation certificate expires, leaving perpetually licensed apps able to open files but not edit or save them. Slashdot reader joshuark shares a report from OSnews: "Microsoft Office 2019 and 2021 for Mac view-only conversion (2026) is a scheduled remote degradation of perpetually-licensed Microsoft Office software for macOS and iOS, set for July 13, 2026 when a license-validation certificate used by the Office apps expires," reports the Consumer Rights Wiki. "After Office 2019 for Mac reached end of support in October 2023, Microsoft assured customers their installed apps would 'continue to function.' The July 13, 2026 conversion instead drops the apps into a Microsoft-defined 'reduced functionality mode,' in which files can be opened and viewed but not edited or saved. By May 30, 2026, the original 2023 end-of-support page had been re-dated and rewritten on Microsoft's site; the 'continue to function' clause was removed." Microsoft's advice to the users they're stealing from is to keep using the applications as mere viewers, switch to the free Office 365 web applications, pay for a 365 subscription, or buy a brand new regular copy of Office 2024. None of these make any sense, and clearly, all of this should be illegal, but it's not because the software industry is a clown show.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An internal Microsoft strategy document says that the plan for its just-announced “Scout” personal assistant AI is to “make people addicted” to the tool before rolling out additional functionality, 404 Media has learned. “Three phases from addictive app to agentic platform,” the documentation.

Microsoft has been piloting Scout as an internal tool for employees it was calling “ClawPilot,” since March. ClawPilot—and now Scout—are part of “Project Lobster,” which is a Microsoft plan to bring the popular OpenClaw AI tool to its Microsoft 365 suite of products in a way that nontechnical people can use. It is not particularly notable that Microsoft is developing new AI tools—the company has reoriented almost everything it does to focus on AI, and every major AI company has tried to figure out how to bring AI agents into their products after OpenClaw went viral earlier this year. OpenClaw allows users to create AI agents that can act on behalf of the person using it; it can send emails, edit calendars, publish blog posts, and more. What is notable is that the explicit goal of the people developing the product is to addict its users. Microsoft officially announced Scout Tuesday as an “always-on personal agent” that runs on OpenClaw and is integrated into Microsoft 365. 

The internal Microsoft document, called “ClawPilot: Overview and Plan with Project Lobster,” seen by 404 Media has a subheading called “ClawPilot Overall Plan,” which notes “three phases” to its launch plan. The first phase is “Make people addicted.”

Longtime Slashdot reader Matt_Bennett shares a blog post from Adafruit: Adafruit received at 10:38 p.m. ET on May 22, 2026 a letter from former FBI chief of staff, Jonathan F. Lenzner, and partner at Fenwick & West LLP, counsel for Flux, demanding, among other things, that Adafruit refrain from publishing an article addressing what the letter characterizes as false and potentially defamatory claims about Flux, including statements about Flux's intellectual property, commercial traction and user base. The letter further asserts claims under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. Adafruit accessed only information that Flux's own systems made publicly available through a server misconfiguration. Adafruit's reporting concerns a matter of public security interest and was conducted in the ordinary course of responsible disclosure. Although Adafruit vigorously rejects the assertions made in Flux's May 22, 2026 demand letter, we have temporarily stopped publishing on the Adafruit blog while we consider our response and next steps. We will update the community as appropriate. For context, Adafruit is a major open-source hardware company and electronics retailer known for its maker-focused boards, components, tutorials, and community publishing. Flux.ai is relevant because it is building an AI-assisted circuit-board design platform aimed at changing how engineers create and collaborate on PCB designs. "Adafruit probably did a review of AI PCB tools," writes HN user karmicthreat. "I've used Flux.ai before; it was a pretty bad experience. After about 50-100$ in tokens a couple of times, I couldn't get more than a couple of simple components on the schematic. And not in sensible positions..." Redditor AlexTaradox adds: "Nothing was published as far as I know. I assume they did review of AI tools and likely contacted flux with some preliminary results, but flux saw where it is going and decided to block them from publishing any results. Flux is garbage and they obviously know it, but they need to hold for some time until some other scam acquires them. Doing anything with them is just asking to be screwed..." Further discussions are taking place on Reddit and Hacker News.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

New EU battery rules taking effect early next year are pushing tech makers toward user-replaceable batteries in products like headphones, e-readers, handheld consoles, laptops, and possibly earbuds. But carve-outs for smartphones and tablets may mean replaceable batteries won't necessarily return to phones in the way many users remember. The Verge's Dominic Preston reports: Since the upcoming law doesn't actually come into force until February 18th, 2027, companies still have plenty of time to get their ducks in a row. Still, it's likely that before then we'll see more and more manufacturers launch products with user-replaceable batteries, across audio, e-readers, gaming handhelds, and more. Only time will tell whether most of those products are EU only, or whether the new European laws shape the nature of tech worldwide. It's likely that some product categories will move slower than others. Tech companies will have breathed a sigh of relief that wearables look likely to be exempt, but if wireless earbuds aren't carved out as well then there may be a scramble to adapt the miniature designs for easy replaceability. "The in-ear form factor demands extreme miniaturization, to fit the driver, antenna, processor, microphones and battery," notes a recent report from consultants Futuresource, going on to suggest that meeting the requirements will make earbuds both bigger and more expensive to manufacture. There also remains uncertainty about how some elements of the law will be interpreted. The law requires that user repairs be possible using "commercially available tools," which are "tools available on the market to all end-users." Right to Repair Europe's Alberico points out that this is a broad definition, likely to include a lot of tools not found in most houses, so there will likely be nothing to stop manufacturers requiring the sorts of less common screws that require dedicated electronics tool kits. There's also no strict definition of the "reasonable" price that manufacturers are required to set for spare parts. "That will likely take time -- and possibly litigation -- to clarify in practice," Alberico says. "But without fair access to affordable spare parts, repair will struggle to become the simplest and most attractive option for consumers." The big disappointment is that the separate phone and tablet legislation means we won't see any real changes there, so long as manufacturers make their batteries and devices durable. "This creates a false tradeoff between durability and repairability," Alberico says. "Robust, waterproof devices should not have to come at the expense of user-replaceable batteries. While the ecodesign legislation requirements meant an improvement in battery durability and replaceability, at Right to Repair Europe we'll continue to advocate for all products to be designed with user-replaceable batteries." Whether the EU will listen remains to be seen. Otherwise, the main product people seem to want to replace the battery in may remain one of the only ones where they can't.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The IRS’s new, Palantir-powered API will make IRS data available to any app it wishes, and Palantir is working for the Criminal Investigation (CI) part of the IRS on a new system to bring together traditionally disparate systems into a single overarching one to investigate all sorts of financial crime, according to a cache of documents obtained by 404 Media. 

The existence and development of the API have been previously reported and announced by the Department of the Treasury. But the documents provide much more specific insight into what the IRS is hoping to achieve with it, and what the agency wants Palantir to build.

“As the IRS’ mission expands as a result of legislative mandates, taxpayer expectations, and oversight requirements, IRS data systems have become increasingly complex and siloed; this creates an opportunity to modernize data access, enhance secure information sharing across business operations, and accelerate compliance capabilities,” one of the documents reads.

404 Media obtained the documents through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the IRS.

The idea of the new API—an Application Programming Interface that lets different pieces of software communicate with one another—is to make “IRS data easily accessible to any app,” according to one of the documents. Specifically, the API will use Palantir’s Foundry software, the documents say.

In September, the Department of the Treasury announced: “To continue improving data integrity and technical infrastructure, Treasury has awarded a contract to Palantir. This partnership will enable a common API layer that supports developer platforms, workflow automation, and data analytics.  This work supports federal employees, increasing efficiency for their professional duties.”

Last month The Intercept reported Palantir is helping the IRS analyze dozens of different datasets to investigate financial crimes. One of the documents obtained by 404 Media discussing CI’s modernization says one objective is to provide modern tools to support investigations into “complex criminal financial crimes, organized crime, tax crimes, protecting the US financial system and other US Treasury Department missions.”

One section lays out how CI currently handles data:

“CI does not have a centralized law enforcement case management system that allows for deconfliction (increased intelligence and officer safety), lead tracking, centralized evidence/case file management, chain of custody tracking, or investigative file sharing/comprehensive case file access (across CI, Chief Counsel, Department of Justice, and civil counterparts). Nor does CI have a centralized repository for all CI case data (intelligence and data analytics). CI's current solution for managing case data is having case related evidence, memorandums, and investigative approval requests housed in Windows folders maintained on individual agent's computers, shared Windows folders within field offices that periodically backup to regional servers and locking filing cabinets and grand jury storage rooms that house physical evidence.”

In February a second federal judge ordered the IRS to stop sharing residential addresses with ICE, Politico reported.

Neither Palantir nor the Department of Treasury responded to a request for comment.

You can read the documents here:

Document one.

Document two.

Document three.

Document four.

Document five.

2026 has seen an unexpected indie success, due to the fact that it’s an extremely unexpected team up. On one hand, you have Grey Alien Games, long time grinders of the solitaire genre, most known by you HG101 readers as the creators of Shadowhand. On the other, we have Night Signal Entertainment, a newcomer created ...

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Forbidden Solitaire was first posted on June 1, 2026 at 4:17 pm.
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