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Submission + - SPAM: Fixlastmile Releases 2025 Last-Mile Trends Report: Real-Time Tracking Now a Must

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: AHMEDABAD, India | July 10, 2025 — FixLastMile, a leading provider of AI-powered logistics solutions, has released its much-anticipated 2025 report on last mile delivery trends that highlights the rising demand for real-time tracking in delivery systems.

The comprehensive study examines shifts in customer expectations, operational challenges, and the adoption of last mile delivery software across various industries.

According to the report, real-time tracking has moved from being a value-add to a non-negotiable requirement in today’s competitive delivery market. From e-commerce to grocery, pharmacies to furniture, the majority of customers now expect complete visibility into their order journey.

Companies that are unable to meet this demand risk not only customer dissatisfaction but also a decline in repeat business.

Customer expectations are driving change

The FixLastMile 2025 Last-Mile Trends Report draws insights from more than 300 delivery-focused businesses across North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia.

Over 80% of the surveyed companies reported a significant increase in customer complaints related to lack of delivery updates. Plus, over 50% from the report states that providing real-time tracking helped reduce support queries and improve satisfaction scores.

“Our research confirms what operators have been experiencing on the ground,” said Abrez Shaikh, Chief Product Officer at FixLastMile. “Real time tracking in delivery systems is no longer just an internal operations feature. It is now a customer-facing promise that shapes trust and retention.”

Delivery market trends reveal deeper operational shifts

The report also highlights larger delivery market trends that are reshaping the industry. Among the most prominent is the increasing adoption of AI-driven last mile delivery software that offers dynamic route optimization, automated dispatch, and instant notifications.

As urban centers grow denser and consumer behavior shifts toward instant gratification, logistics providers are under pressure to complete more deliveries with fewer resources. In response, FixLastMile’s platform has seen a 45% year-over-year increase in adoption among businesses looking to gain visibility and control through its real-time tracking tools.

To help businesses make better decisions in this space, FixLastMile has also published a detailed blog on how to choose route optimization software. The article breaks down market size, growth trends, and key selection criteria to evaluate platforms capable of handling modern last mile demands.

Technology as a differentiator in last mile delivery

In its report, FixLastMile underlines that the companies most likely to grow in 2025 are those that invest in online delivery software with integrated analytics and communication layers.

Real-time tracking is not just about GPS dots on a map. It includes customer alerts, predictive arrival times, driver accountability, and the ability to reschedule or reroute based on real-world events.
FixLastMile’s delivery platform integrates all of these elements and offers businesses a modular yet comprehensive solution. Clients using its tracking tools have reported up to 32% fewer failed deliveries and a 28% improvement in first-attempt success rates.

Industry-wide implications

Beyond e-commerce, FixLastMile’s research shows rapid growth in last mile solutions for niche sectors like medical deliveries, construction supply transport, and field service logistics. These industries, previously reliant on manual coordination, are now moving quickly to adopt online delivery software that can adapt in real time.

“Real time visibility is no longer exclusive to large corporations with deep pockets,” said Shahid Mansuri, Director of Operations at FixLastMile. “Startups, regional operators, and even family-run businesses are now realizing the power of data-driven decision making. Our last mile delivery software levels the playing field.”

Last mile delivery trends for 2025 and beyond

FixLastMile’s report outlines five key last mile delivery trends that are expected to dominate through 2025:

1. Real time tracking becomes a default requirement for customer trust
2. Automated dispatch will replace manual job assignment in over 70% of operations
3. Online delivery market trends show a shift toward bundled tech platforms over standalone apps
4. Predictive analytics will drive operational forecasting in mid-sized fleets
5. Businesses will increasingly seek API-ready software for integration with ERPs and e-commerce platforms

These trends are expected to influence not only product strategy but also how logistics businesses market their services, manage customer relationships, and report performance.

About FixLastMile

FixLastMile is a next-generation delivery software platform built to optimize last mile operations for modern businesses. From route planning to real time tracking, proof-of-delivery to performance analytics, the company offers a full suite of tools that improve efficiency, reduce costs, and enhance the delivery experience. Serving clients across logistics, retail, food delivery, healthcare, and more, FixLastMile is trusted by companies looking to modernize their fleet and exceed customer expectations.

Media Contact
Kunal Swami
Head of Communications
FixLastMile
hello@fixlastmile.com
Link to Original Source

Submission + - VMware Prevents Some Perpetual License Holders From Downloading Patches (theregister.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Some customers of Broadcom’s VMware business currently cannot access security patches, putting them at greater risk of attack. Customers in that perilous position hold perpetual licenses for VMware products but do not have a current support contract with Broadcom, which will not renew those contracts unless users sign up for software subscriptions. Yet many customers in this situation run products that Broadcom continues to support with patches and updates.

In April 2024, Broadcom CEO Hock Tan promised “free access to zero-day security patches for supported versions of vSphere” so customers "are able to use perpetual licenses in a safe and secure fashion." VMware patches aren’t freely available; users must log on to Broadcom’s support portal to access the software. Some VMware users in this situation have told The Register that when they enter the portal they cannot download patches, and that VMware support staff have told them it may be 90 days before the software fixes become available.

Submission + - Google Develops AI Tool That Fills Missing Words In Roman Inscriptions (theguardian.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: In addition to sanitation, medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, a freshwater system and public health, the Romans also produced a lot of inscriptions. Making sense of the ancient texts can be a slog for scholars, but a new artificial intelligence tool from Google DeepMind aims to ease the process. Named Aeneas after the mythical Trojan hero, the program predicts where and when inscriptions were made and makes suggestions where words are missing. Historians who put the program through its paces said it transformed their work by helping them identify similar inscriptions to those they were studying, a crucial step for setting the texts in context, and proposing words to fill the inevitable gaps in worn and damaged artefacts. [...]

The Google team led by Yannis Assael worked with historians to create an AI tool that would aid the research process. The program is trained on an enormous database of nearly 200,000 known inscriptions, amounting to 16m characters. Aeneas takes text, and in some cases images, from the inscription being studied and draws on its training to build a list of related inscriptions from 7th century BC to 8th century BC. Rather than merely searching for similar words, the AI identifies and links inscriptions through deeper historical connections. Having trained on the rich collection of inscriptions, the AI can assign study texts to one of 62 Roman provinces and estimate when it was written to within 13 years. It also provides potential words to fill in any gaps, though this has only been tested on known inscriptions where text is blocked out.

In a test run, researchers set Aeneas loose on a vast inscription carved into monuments around the Roman empire. The self-congratulatory Res Gestae Divi Augusti describes the life achievements of the first Roman emperor, Augustus. Aeneas came up with two potential dates for the work, either the first decade BC or between 10 and 20AD. The hedging echoes the debate among scholars who argue over the same dates. In another test, Aeneas analysed inscriptions on a votive altar from Mogontiacum, now Mainz in Germany, and revealed through subtle linguistic similarities how it had been influenced by an older votive altar in the region. “Those were jaw-dropping moments for us,” said Sommerschield. Details are published in Nature and Aeneas is available to researchers online.

Submission + - Brave browser blocks Microsoft Recall to protect user privacy (nerds.xyz)

Submitted by BrianFagioli
BrianFagioli writes: Brave just made it even clearer that it puts privacy first, and I’m here for it. Starting with version 1.81 on Windows, the browser will now block Microsoft Recall from logging your activity. That means no sneaky screenshots of your browsing sessions will end up in Recall’s controversial database.

Microsoft’s Recall feature has faced heavy criticism since it was first introduced in 2024. The tool automatically captured full-screen images every few seconds and stored them locally in plaintext. It didn’t take long for privacy experts to sound the alarm. With such a setup, any malware or person with access to your machine could sift through your digital life with ease.

Submission + - Google's AI Is Destroying Search, the Internet, and Your Brain (404media.co)

Submitted by alternative_right
alternative_right writes: Yesterday the Pew Research Center released a report based on the internet browsing activity of 900 U.S. adults which found that Google

users who encounter an AI summary are less likely to click on links to other websites than users who don’t encounter an AI summary. To be precise, only 1 percent of users who encountered an AI summary clicked the link to the page Google is summarizing.

Essentially, the data shows that Google’s AI Overview feature introduced in 2023 replacing the “10 blue links” format that turned Google into the internet’s de facto traffic controller will end the flow of all that traffic almost completely and destroy the business of countless blogs and news sites in the process. Instead, Google will feed people into a faulty AI-powered alternative that is prone to errors it presents with so much confidence, we won’t even be able to tell that they are errors.

Submission + - FDA's New Drug Approval AI Is Generating Fake Studies (gizmodo.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Secretary of Health and Human Services, has made a big push to get agencies like the Food and Drug Administration to use generative artificial intelligence tools. In fact, Kennedy recently told Tucker Carlson that AI will soon be used to approve new drugs “very, very quickly.” But a new report from CNN confirms all our worst fears. Elsa, the FDA’s AI tool, is spitting out fake studies.

CNN spoke with six current and former employees at the FDA, three of whom have used Elsa for work that they described as helpful, like creating meeting notes and summaries. But three of those FDA employees told CNN (paywalled) that Elsa just makes up nonexistent studies, something commonly referred to in AI as “hallucinating.” The AI will also misrepresent research, according to these employees. “Anything that you don’t have time to double-check is unreliable. It hallucinates confidently,” one unnamed FDA employee told CNN. [...] Kennedy’s Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) commission issued a report back in May that was later found to be filled with citations for fake studies. An analysis from the nonprofit news outlet NOTUS found that at least seven studies cited didn’t even exist, with many more misrepresenting what was actually said in a given study. We still don’t know if the commission used Elsa to generate that report.

FDA Commissioner Marty Makary initially deployed Elsa across the agency on June 2, and an internal slide leaked to Gizmodo bragged that the system was “cost-effective,” only costing $12,000 in its first week. Makary said that Elsa was “ahead of schedule and under budget” when he first announced the AI rollout. But it seems like you get what you pay for. If you don’t care about the accuracy of your work, Elsa sounds like a great tool for allowing you to get slop out the door faster, generating garbage studies that could potentially have real consequences for public health in the U.S. CNN notes that if an FDA employee asks Elsa to generate a one-paragraph summary of a 20-page paper on a new drug, there’s no simple way to know if that summary is accurate. And even if the summary is more or less accurate, what if there’s something within that 20-page report that would be a big red flag for any human with expertise? The only way to know for sure if something was missed or if the summary is accurate is to actually read the report. The FDA employees who spoke with CNN said they tested Elsa by asking basic questions like how many drugs of a certain class have been approved for children. Elsa confidently gave wrong answers, and while it apparently apologized when it was corrected, a robot being “sorry” doesn’t really fix anything.

Submission + - Clorox Sues Its 'Service Desk' Vendor For Simply Giving Out Passwords (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Hacking is hard. Well, sometimes. Other times, you just call up a company's IT service desk and pretend to be an employee who needs a password reset, an Okta multifactor authentication reset, and a Microsoft multifactor authentication reset... and it's done. Without even verifying your identity. So you use that information to log in to the target network and discover a more trusted user who works in IT security. You call the IT service desk back, acting like you are now this second person, and you request the same thing: a password reset, an Okta multifactor authentication reset, and a Microsoft multifactor authentication reset. Again, the desk provides it, no identity verification needed. So you log in to the network with these new credentials and set about planting ransomware or exfiltrating data in the target network, eventually doing an estimated $380 million in damage. Easy, right?

According to The Clorox Company, which makes everything from lip balm to cat litter to charcoal to bleach, this is exactly what happened to it in 2023. But Clorox says that the "debilitating" breach was not its fault. It had outsourced the "service desk" part of its IT security operations to the massive services company Cognizant—and Clorox says that Cognizant failed to follow even the most basic agreed-upon procedures for running the service desk. In the words of a new Clorox lawsuit, Cognizant's behavior was "all a devastating lie," it "failed to show even scant care," and it was "aware that its employees were not adequately trained."

"Cognizant was not duped by any elaborate ploy or sophisticated hacking techniques," says the lawsuit, using italics to indicate outrage emphasis. "The cybercriminal just called the Cognizant Service Desk, asked for credentials to access Clorox’s network, and Cognizant handed the credentials right over. Cognizant is on tape handing over the keys to Clorox’s corporate network to the cybercriminal—no authentication questions asked." [...] The new lawsuit, filed in California state courts, wants Cognizant to cough up millions of dollars to cover the damage Clorox says it suffered after weeks of disruption to its factories and ordering systems. (You can read a brief timeline of the disruption here.)

Submission + - Competitive Cyclists Are Using Hidden Motors (reuters.com)

Submitted by ItsJustAPseudonym
ItsJustAPseudonym writes: From an article on Reuters:

The International Cycling Union (UCI) has intensified its fight against mechanical doping, employing intelligence-driven methods to combat increasingly sophisticated alleged cheating in professional cycling.

They call the use of hidden motors "mechanical doping". In 2010 it led to the ban of a rider from Belgium who had a hidden motor in her seat-tube during a cyclocross event.

"It's a bit of a technological arms race. Components are getting lighter, smaller. Easier to conceal, which is harder to detect", according to Nick Raudenski, the UCI Head of the Fight Against Technological Fraud.

Submission + - Microsoft President: Teaching Kids to Code is Out, Teaching Kids to Use AI is In

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: Code.org CEO Hadi Partovi on Friday shared a video on Twitter from the Microsoft Elevate event, where Microsoft pledged $4 billion to support schools and nonprofits with AI tools and training, including a new Hour of AI event for K-12 schoolchildren. In the video, Microsoft President Brad Smith drives home the point that tech-backed nonprofit Code.org and the K-12 computer science education movement will be shifting from the Hour of Code to the Hour of AI by taking off his Hour of Code baseball cap to reveal an Hour of AI baseball cap underneath. "Hour of Code is evolving to the Hour of AI," announces a banner on the HOC website.

"The last 12 years have been about the Hour of Code but the future involves the Hour of AI," Smith said to applause from the crowd at at Seattle’s Museum of History & Industry as he high-fived Partovi. Smith, a founding Code.org Board member (Microsoft AI execs Kevin Scott and Julia Liuson are current Code.org Board members), noted at the 2018 Hour of Code kickoff that he was Partovi's next-door neighbor.

Currently, only three AI activities are available on the Hour of AI website. All were developed in partnership with Microsoft and Amazon, who are both $30+ million Lifetime Supporters of the nonprofit. On Friday, Code.org announced on LinkedIn that one of those offerings — Music Lab, videos for which feature Amazon Music employees as instructors — "is now part of our K–5 curriculum" (ages 5-11).

Submission + - How to destroy America: Let it fall in love with AI, then pull the plug (nerds.xyz) 1

Submitted by BrianFagioli
BrianFagioli writes: If someone wanted to destroy America, they might not need missiles or boots on the ground. Just let us build our world around AI. Let us become fully dependent on machine learning and automation. Let us give up our skills and instincts in exchange for convenience. Then wait. When the moment is right, pull the plug.

Submission + - Civitai Blocking Access to the United Kingdom

Submitted by Shakes Fist
Shakes Fist writes: Thanks to the Online Safety Act, the UK is blocking access to one of the world's largest AI resources. The government that wants the UK to be a software powerhouse. Labour didn't introduce this but they didn't oppose it.

I quote:

"Civitai Blocking Access to the United Kingdom
---------------------------------------------

As of 11:59pm UTC on the 24th July 2025, users located in England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland will no longer be able to access Civitai.

We know this is deeply disappointing news, and we're tremendously sorry to our UK community. You've been an important and valued part of our platform since inception, and we're heartbroken to have to take such a drastic step. This decision wasn't taken lightly, and we want to be transparent about why it's necessary.

### The Online Safety Act (OSA) Is a Serious Compliance Burden

The UK government has enacted the Online Safety Act (OSA), a sweeping new law that governs any online service accessible to UK users — even those hosted abroad. If your platform allows user-generated content (as ours does), you're required to comply.

This law is not limited to big tech. It explicitly applies to platforms of all sizes, including small companies like ours. It doesn’t matter where we're based. The moment a UK user can access our site, we're on the hook.

The law requires:

- Two complex legal risk assessments (on illegal content and children's access)
- Ongoing compliance documentation and auditing
- Age verification systems, requiring intrusive biometric ID checks
- Expanded moderation requirements, and the removal of new categories of content, under the UK's Extreme Pornography legislation.

If that sounds like a lot, it is. The law itself is over 250 pages long, and the regulatory guidance from Ofcom — the UK enforcement agency — is currently over 3,000 pages. It is legalese-laden, cross-referenced, and constantly shifting.

We’re a small team. We simply don’t have the legal budget or manpower to decode and implement this. Attempting to comply without expert legal counsel would be reckless, and if we get it wrong...

### The Penalties Are Real — And Personal

Non-compliance with the OSA is no joke. Ofcom has the power to levy fines of up to £18 million or 10% of global revenue, whichever is greater.

These fines aren't a threat; they're being applied to platforms now. In March, after the first requirements of the Bill came into effect, Ofcom fined OnlyFans £1.05 million for failing to adequately explain their age-assurance measures.

More chillingly, company directors and designated managers can face personal criminal liability if Ofcom determines we failed in our child safety or moderation duties. The law empowers Ofcom to act without warning: their first contact with a platform can be a formal breach notice with enforcement action attached. We cannot risk this level of liability.

### Can't We Just Fly Under the Radar?

Unfortunately, no. We're already on it. We've had multiple meetings with the UK Home Office to defend the legitimacy of our AI-generated content and protect creative freedom. We’re not an unknown startup. Civitai is known to UK regulators, and pretending we can remain invisible simply isn't realistic.

### Why Not Just Comply?

We wish we could. But the truth is, this law was written with massive tech firms in mind, not modest teams like ours. It requires constant legal review, multi-layered moderation systems beyond those we have in place now, and deep regulatory expertise. To do this responsibly and effectively would require hundreds of hours and tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees. It's not just a few policies — these sorts of obligations require a full-time legal team, and expanded moderation team which we can't afford.

### What Happens Next

At the deadline, UK users will begin seeing a block message when visiting Civitai from within the blocked territories.

### To Our UK Community

We're truly sorry. This situation is deeply frustrating, and a geoblock was our last possible option. We care about this space, and we care about our users.

We hope the regulatory climate changes in the future, and if and when it does, we’ll reassess our ability to reopen access to the UK. That said, if recent legislation is any indication — such as proposals to further restrict even consensual adult content — we worry that the trend may be moving in the opposite direction."

An online petition to question this was started https://petition.parliament.uk... which has gained over 17'000 signatures. The Government responds to all petitions that get more than 10,000 signatures.

Submission + - Why Quantum Cryptanalysis is Bollocks 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Quantum code breaking? You'd get further with an 8-bit computer, an abacus, and a dog

The US National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) has been pushing for the development of post-quantum cryptographic algorithms since 2016.

"If large-scale quantum computers are ever built, they will be able to break many of the public-key cryptosystems currently in use," NIST explains in its summary of Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC).

Peter Gutmann, a professor of computer science at the University of Auckland New Zealand, thinks PQC is bollocks – "nonsense" for our American readers – and said as much in a 2024 presentation [PDF], "Why Quantum Cryptanalysis is Bollocks."

Submission + - Americans are using AI instead of traditional therapy and it's not just about co (nerds.xyz)

Submitted by BrianFagioli
BrianFagioli writes: A new report reveals that Americans are increasingly turning to AI for emotional support, and not necessarily by choice. You see, with the cost of therapy rising and access to licensed professionals limited in many parts of the country, artificial intelligence is stepping in to fill the void.

According to a new study from Ubie Health, states like California, Texas, and New York are leading the charge in using AI companions. Tools like ChatGPT and other AI-powered apps are being used to cope with stress, anxiety, and loneliness. While that might sound like a tech-forward evolution of mental health care, the data tells a more uncomfortable story.

California ranks first in the United States for interest in AI companionship, with nearly 452,000 monthly searches for “ChatGPT” and 396 searches per 100,000 residents for “AI companion.” That is despite the state having one of the highest numbers of licensed psychologists. So why are Californians avoiding traditional therapy?

Sadly, it largely comes down to access and affordability. Therapy in California costs between $90 and $135 per session, and only 11.99 percent of adults with mental illness there actually use mental health services. The problem isn’t awareness. It’s economics.

Texas ranks second in the report, but with a very different healthcare landscape. The Lone Star State has less than half the number of psychologists compared to California and the lowest usage of mental health services in the country at just 11.74 percent. Yet Texans still log 442 monthly searches for “AI companion” per 100,000 residents. That suggests digital support is being used as a workaround rather than a preference.

New York places third, with the highest volume of ChatGPT searches overall, nearly 494,000 per month. The state leads in the number of licensed psychologists and has a slightly higher therapy usage rate of 14.55 percent. But therapy costs remain steep, ranging from $90 to $134 per session.

The study calculated a composite score using six data points, including therapy costs, psychologist availability, mental illness rates, and AI-related search interest. The resulting top ten list highlights a troubling national trend. The higher the barriers to care, the more people turn to AI.

Washington, Utah, and New Jersey all show similar patterns. In Utah, 29.19 percent of adults report mental illness, the highest among the top ten. Only 19.46 percent receive treatment. Louisiana logs the highest number of searches for AI companionship, despite having just 13.2 psychologists per 100,000 residents.

The underlying issue isn’t just about technological optimism. People are frustratingly stuck. AI isn’t replacing therapy because it is better. It is replacing therapy because, for many, it is all that is available.

Mental health parity laws were supposed to guarantee equal insurance coverage for mental and physical healthcare. However, enforcement has been weakened. The Trump administration paused key regulations, leaving millions of Americans navigating emotional distress without affordable or accessible help.

Kota Kubo, CEO of Ubie Health, put it bluntly: “People are increasingly using AI companions to fill emotional support gaps, especially where therapy is expensive or harder to access.”

That might sound like a win for technology. But when the alternative is a broken system, it is not really a choice.

As AI tools become more humanlike and easier to access, they may become a permanent fixture in emotional support. That is true even if they were never meant to replace professional care. While some users may find comfort in digital empathy, the growing reliance on these tools raises big questions about privacy, ethics, and what society is willing to accept as “good enough” when it comes to mental health.

Submission + - SPAM: White House Touts Huge MAHA Wins on Food Dyes

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The average person in the United States drinks and eats five times as much food dye today compared to what was consumed in 1955. In cereals, frostings, candy and even some packaged salmon, we eat food dyes. And we drink them in some soft drinks and sports drinks.

Researchers have linked food dyes to three genes. One of those genes produces dopamine, the feel-good brain chemical that promotes focus and control over your impulses. The two other genes produce histamine, a chemical made in your body that causes you to feel alert. But too much histamine can bring on allergy symptoms.
Link to Original Source

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