Innholdsfortegnelse for #433 i Techlife News

The Chinese company Huawei can secretly tap into communications through the networking equipment it sells globally, a U.S. official charged as the White House stepped up efforts to persuade allies to ban the gear from next-generation cellular networks. The U.S. national security adviser, Robert O’Brien, made the statement at an Atlantic Council forum on Tuesday evening after The Wall Street Journal quoted him as saying Huawei can “access sensitive and personal information” in systems it sells and maintains globally. O’Brien did not provide any evidence to support the claim. U.S. officials have long argued that Huawei is duty-bound by Chinese law to spy on behalf of the country’s ruling Communist Party. Huawei denies that claim and issued a statement Wednesday saying the company “has never and will never covertly access…

Streaming services like Netflix or Hulu account for 19% of television viewing in the United States now for people who have that capacity, virtually double what it was less than two years ago, a report out Wednesday said. A Nielsen company study illustrated how quickly consumers have embraced streaming as an alternative to live TV. The percentage of time spent streaming has gone from 10% in a Nielsen study from March 2018 to 19% during the last three months of 2019. More than half of consumers with the capacity to stream subscribe to two or more services, Nielsen found. And, in a survey, 93% said they planned to either increase or maintain that number. “There is room for growth there,” said Pete Katsingris, Nielsen’s senior vice president for audience insights.…

A court in Moscow fined Twitter and Facebook 4 million rubles each Thursday for refusing to store the personal data of Russian citizens on servers in Russia, the largest penalties imposed on Western technology companies under internet use laws. The fines of nearly $63,000 are the first five-figure fines levied on tech companies since Russia adopted a flurry of legislation starting in 2012 designed to tighten the government’s grip on online activity. One provision required tech companies to keep servers in Russia for storing personal information they gather from Russian citizens. Russia’s internet regulator, Roskomnadzor, has tried unsuccessfully for several years to force large companies like Facebook, Twitter and Google to move Russian user data to Russia. Commenting on Thursday’s court rulings, Roskomnadzor said Twitter and Facebook would be fined…

For the first time, the U.S. government’s highway safety agency has approved a company’s request to deploy a self-driving vehicle that doesn’t need to meet the same federal safety standards for cars and trucks driven by humans. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration granted temporary approval for Silicon Valley robotics company Nuro to run low-speed autonomous delivery vehicles that were designed without any accommodations for human drivers. That means no side and rear-view mirrors, windshield wipers, steering wheels or brake pedals. The vehicles previously were subject to federal standards for low-speed vehicles that travel under 25 miles per hour. Those didn’t need to have steering wheels, brake pedals or human backup drivers, but were required to have windshield wipers, backup camera displays and mirrors. Nuro’s battery-powered vehicles can be monitored…

Four members of the Chinese military have been charged with breaking into the computer networks of the Equifax credit reporting agency and stealing the personal information of tens of millions of Americans, the Justice Department said this week, blaming Beijing for one of the largest hacks in history to target consumer data. The hackers in the 2017 breach stole the personal information of roughly 145 million Americans, collecting names, addresses, Social Security and driver’s license numbers and other data stored in the company’s databases. The intrusion damaged the company’s reputation and underscored China’s increasingly aggressive and sophisticated intelligence-gathering methods. “The scale of the theft was staggering,” Attorney General William Barr said in announcing the indictment. “This theft not only caused significant financial damage to Equifax, but invaded the privacy of…

At one point in “Birds of Prey,” crime lord Roman Sionis, aka Ewan McGregor, sits down with a tub of popcorn to watch Harley Quinn suffer through a brutal interrogation. He’s a psychopath — well, so is Harley, for that matter — but Roman has the right idea. As portrayed by the effortlessly charismatic Margot Robbie, Harley’s always gonna be the most interesting person in the room — or on the screen. Grab your popcorn, indeed. Robbie is certainly killing it these days, and we’re not just talking about the escalating body count (especially if you include violence by glitter gun) in this visually arresting and often clever — if not particularly profound — installment of the DC Extended Universe. Heartbreaking in “Bombshell” and poignant in “Once Upon a Time…

Twitter has rolled out a new tool to help users find accurate information about this year’s U.S. Census. People who search for census-related terms will automatically see a link to the federal government’s census website, which contains information about participating in the census, what information is collected and how it is used. It’s the latest example of how technology companies are trying to staunch the flow of misinformation related to the census, which is used to apportion seats in the U.S. House and allocate billions of dollars in federal funding. “Ensuring the public can find information from authoritative sources is a key aspect of our commitment to serve the public conversation on Twitter,” the company said this week in a statement announcing the change. False claims about the census could…

Europe and NASA’s Solar Orbiter rocketed into space last Sunday night on an unprecedented mission to capture the first pictures of the sun’s elusive poles. “We’re on the way to the sun. Go Solar Orbiter!” said Cesar Garcia Marirrodriga, project manager for the European Space Agency. “It’s a fantastic moment ... it’s like, well, we’re unstoppable.” The $1.5 billion spacecraft will join NASA’s Parker Solar Probe, launched 1 1/2 years ago, in coming perilously close to the sun to unveil its secrets. While Solar Orbiter won’t venture close enough to penetrate the sun’s corona, or crown-like outer atmosphere, like Parker, it will maneuver into a unique out-of-plane orbit that will take it over both poles, never photographed before. Together with powerful ground observatories, the sun-staring space duo will be like…

Organizers of the world’s biggest mobile technology fair are pulling the plug over worries about the viral outbreak from China. The annual Mobile World Congress will no longer be held as planned in Barcelona, Spain, on Feb. 24-27. “Global concern regarding the coronavirus outbreak, travel concern and other circumstances, make it impossible for the GSMA to hold the event,” John Hoffman, head of the GSMA organizing body, said in a statement Wednesday. The decision comes after dozens of tech companies and wireless carriers dropped out, with the latest cancelations by Nokia, Vodafone, Deutsche Telekom and Britain’s BT on Wednesday. Other companies that dropped out earlier include Ericsson, Nokia, Sony, Amazon, Intel and LG. The companies cited concerns for the safety of staff and visitors. Organizers and government officials had sought…

The U.S. budget deficit through the first four months of this budget year is up 19% from the same period a year ago, putting the country on track to record its first $1 trillion deficit since 2012. The Treasury Department said Wednesday in its monthly budget report that the deficit from October through January was $389.2 billion, up $78.9 billion from the same period last year. The deficit reflected government spending that has grown 10.3% this budget year while revenues were up only 6.1%. For January, the deficit totaled $32.6 billion, compared to a surplus a year ago of $8.68 billion. President Donald Trump sent Congress a new budget blueprint on Monday that projects the deficit will top $1 trillion this year but then will decline over the next decade.…

The Sacramento Kings and Intel announced plans Thursday for the NBA’s first research and development site devoted to finding new ways for fans to access replay angles never seen before. The Kings are planning to unveil an app next season where fans can tap into video streams and choose their own replays. Elements of what is called “volumetric video” technology have been available in some other NBA arenas, as well as some NFL and English Premier League stadiums, but the Kings want to be the first to put fans in control of what they want to see again and how they see it. “We have great fans, but they deserve better,” Kings owner Vivek Ranadive said. “We think that the technology is moving so fast that we just need to…

Iran’s information minister apologized Wednesday for posting a photo on Twitter of what appeared to be a Halloween-type costume representing a spacesuit, in an effort to promote the idea of a manned space program for his country. The official IRNA news agency quoted Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi, Iran’s information and communications technology minister, as saying his department’s advertising team “undeniably made a mistake in choosing the image” and expressed his apologies to “the people and space scientists” of Iran. The photo, posted on Jahromi’s Twitter account and depicting what looks like costume of a spacesuit with an Iranian flag sowed on the front, caused a stir on social media, with many Iranians turning to sarcasm and commenting about the fake spacesuit. After his apology, Jahromi removed the photo from his…

In 2010, Apple CEO Steve Jobs took to the stage to announce a device that would revolutionize the way we read, watch, learn, and work. Ten years on, the iPad remains one of Apple’s most iconic products, ushering in a personal computing experience that continues to evolve at speed. A DECADE OF INNOVATION When the first iPad was unveiled at the San Francisco’s Yerba Buena center on January 27, 2010, many likened the device to a “giant iPod Touch” and questioned whether there would be any demand for a tablet at a time when consumers were making the switch to their first touch-screen smartphones. They needn’t have worried; in the decade that’s followed, Apple has managed to sell more than 360 million iPads to consumers, businesses, schools, and governments around…

T-Mobile’s $26.5 billion takeover of Sprint could mean higher or lower phone bills, depending on whom you ask. A federal judge in New York ultimately took T-Mobile’s track record of aggressive competition into account in ruling Tuesday that the deal would be good for consumers. In doing so, he rejected a challenge by a group of states worried about reduced competition. Though the deal still needs a few more approvals, T-Mobile expects to close it as early as April 1. Here’s what a combined T-Mobile-Sprint company could mean for you and your phone bill: FOR MOST T-MOBILE AND SPRINT CUSTOMERS Sprint customers will get a T-Mobile bill, but that transition may take a few years. If you are a T-Mobile customer, you might not see many changes. However, because the…

Amazon wants President Donald Trump to submit to questioning over the tech company’s losing bid for a $10 billion military contract. The Pentagon awarded the cloud computing project to Microsoft in October. Amazon later sued, arguing that Trump’s interference and bias against the company harmed Amazon’s chances. Amazon was considered an early frontrunner for a project that Pentagon officials have described as critical to advancing the U.S. military’s technological advantage over adversaries. The project, known as Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure, or JEDI, will store and process vast amounts of classified data, allowing the U.S. military to improve communications with soldiers on the battlefield and use artificial intelligence to speed up its war planning and fighting capabilities. The Pentagon was preparing to announce its decision between finalists Amazon and Microsoft when…

A California company says it will build and sell Chinese-designed automobiles in the U.S. at the end of next year or early in 2022. HAAH Automotive Holdings says it has an agreement with large Chinese automaker Chery Automobile to provide the vehicles, which will be assembled in a U.S. factory. HAAH says the first vehicle sold will be a midsize SUV. It’s the latest effort to bring passenger vehicles designed in China to the United States, but other efforts so far have seen limited success. GAC Motor of China has appeared at the last two Detroit auto shows to tout plans to enter the American market. But its plans have been delayed until June of this year. General Motors Co. and Sweden’s Volvo Cars export Chinese-made vehicles to the United…

Japanese technology conglomerate SoftBank Group Corp. said its profit for the last quarter dropped amid worries about the perceived risk of its investments into companies like WeWork. Tokyo-based SoftBank said its profit for the October-December quarter stood at 55 billion yen ($500 million), down to less than a tenth of the 698 billion it earned over the three months in 2018. In a bit of good news, a U.S. judge in New York on Tuesday rejected a challenge by a group of states to T-Mobile’s $26.5 billion takeover of Sprint. SoftBank owns Sprint. The deal has been two years in the making, and the latest development appears to clear nearly all the hurdles. The agreement already has U.S. regulatory approval and the go-ahead from public utility commissions. T-Mobile now expects…

Chinese authorities are struggling to strike a delicate balance between containing a viral outbreak and restarting the world’s second-biggest economy after weeks of paralysis. As the death toll from the newly named COVID-19 illness topped 1,000, global supply chains remain widely disrupted for businesses across the world that have built deep connections to China. Mail service has been delayed after airlines suspended flights between China and the rest of the world. U.S. chip maker Intel and Chinese smartphone maker Vivo joined other tech giants in withdrawing from a major European technology fair over virus concerns. Prices for oil, copper and other basic building-block commodities have tumbled on dwindling demand from China, often called the world’s factory. China alone accounted for half the growth in the world’s oil demand last year,…

President Donald Trump’s nominee to the Federal Reserve touted her credentials in written testimony Thursday and said she would “work collegially” if approved. Judy Shelton, a former adviser to Trump’s campaign, said, “I hope to contribute intellectual diversity” to the Fed’s Board of Governors. Shelton will likely face tough questioning by the Senate Banking Committee Thursday, which is considering her nomination. Shelton has come under fire from mainstream economists and Fed watchers for her unorthodox views, including support for tying the dollar’s value to gold or some other reference point and questioning the need for a fully independent Fed. Shelton has also expressed seemingly contradictory views on interest rate policy and once suggested that the federal government need not guarantee bank deposits. In the aftermath of the Great Recession, when…

An Apple engineer who died when his Tesla Model X slammed into a concrete barrier had previously complained about the SUV malfunctioning on that same stretch of Silicon Valley freeway. His complaints were detailed in a trove of documents released Tuesday by federal investigators in two Tesla crashes involving Autopilot, one in California and the other in Florida. The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the March 2018 crash that killed Walter Huang near Mountain View, California. It’s also probing a crash in Delray Beach, Florida, that happened about a year later and killed driver Jeremy Banner. The documents say Huang told his wife that Autopilot had previously veered his SUV toward the same barrier on U.S. 101 near Mountain View where he later crashed. Huang died at a hospital…

Samsung on Tuesday unveiled a new foldable phone, the Galaxy Z Flip, its second attempt to sell consumers on phones with bendable screens and clamshell designs. The new phone can unfold from a small square upward into a traditional smartphone form, and will go on sale Feb. 14 starting at $1,380. The company announced the phone at a product event in San Francisco. Samsung’s first foldable phone, the Galaxy Fold, finally went on sale last September after delays and reports of screens breaking. The Fold, which carries a price tag of nearly $2,000, folds at a vertical crease rather than horizontally as a flip-phone design would. Motorola has also taken the flip-phone approach with its new $1,500 Razr phone. The foldable phones represent manufacturers’ attempt to energize a market where…

Trump administration officials, increasingly intent on preventing Chinese global technological domination, keep floating the idea that the U.S. government should take a more direct hand in running next-generation 5G wireless networks. But the notion isn’t terribly popular — not even within the administration. Attorney General William Barr said the U.S. government should consider taking a “ controlling stake ” in the European companies Nokia and Ericsson to thwart the global ambitions of China-based Huawei, which holds a leading share of the market for 5G wireless equipment. The federal government could do so directly or via a consortium of U.S. companies and private investors, Barr said. The backlash didn’t take long. In an interview on CNBC, Vice President Mike Pence said “the best way forward” on 5G relies on private enterprise,…

Uber is still losing money as it expands its food delivery business and develops technology for driverless cars. But revenue for its rides business nearly tripled in the final three months of last year as the company picked up more passengers around the world. That prompted it to say it will turn a profit earlier than it expected. The San Francisco-based ride-hailing giant lost $1.1 billion in the fourth quarter of 2019, about 24% more than the same time last year. The loss amounted to 64 cents per share, which was slightly better than what analysts were expecting. Analysts polled by FactSet predicted Uber would lose $1.18 billion, or 67 cents per share, during the quarter. Uber brought in $4.1 billion in revenue, up 37% from a year ago. Its…

Federal regulators are ramping up their investigation of the market dominance of giant tech companies, demanding detailed information on five companies’ acquisitions of smaller firms back to 2010. The Federal Trade Commission announced the move this week, issuing orders to Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft and Google’s parent Alphabet Inc. Hundreds of takeovers of smaller companies are involved. FTC Chairman Joseph Simons said that as a result of the review, the government may require tech giants to unwind earlier acquisitions and divest their assets if it found violations of antitrust law. “All of our options are on the table,” Simons said in a conference call with reporters. “If there are some transactions that are problematic, then we have that opportunity and that ability to go back and challenge” them. Short of…

Though Genette Hofmann is still using her brain, last month she donated a bit of it — to science. Hofmann needed the surgery — her Seattle surgeon was looking deep into her brain, where he found the trigger for the epileptic seizures that had disrupted her life for 30 years. But to get there, he teased out a bit of healthy tissue the size of a lima bean, and with her blessing quickly sent it to some researchers, who were eager to study brain cells while they were still alive. That’s how Hofmann joined a long line of epilepsy patients who’ve helped scientists reveal basic secrets of the brain — knowledge that could pay off in better ways to measure consciousness in brain-injury patients and new treatments for a variety…

London police started using facial recognition cameras on Tuesday to automatically scan for wanted people, as authorities adopt the technology that has raised concerns about increased surveillance and erosion of privacy. Surveillance cameras mounted on a blue police van monitored people coming out of a shopping center in Stratford, in east London. Signs warned that police were using the technology to find people “wanted for serious crimes.” Officers stood nearby, explaining to passers-by how the system works. It’s the first time London’s Metropolitan Police Service has used live facial recognition cameras in an operational deployment since carrying out a series of trials that ended last year. London police are using the technology despite warnings from rights groups, lawmakers and independent experts about a lack of accuracy and bias in the…

Energy producer BP said this week it wants to eliminate or offset all carbon emissions from its operations and the oil and gas it sells to customers by 2050, though it remains unclear how it would achieve such an ambitious target as the company comes under pressure to help combat climate change. London-based BP’s goals include becoming a net zero emitter in its own production of energy but also to reduce the carbon dioxide created by its customers as they use that energy - the bulk of emissions from the industry. Doing so would require not only a shift to cleaner energy sources but also coming up with new technologies to offset emissions or extract CO2 from the atmosphere. As such, BP’s announcement was less of a detailed restructuring plan…