Innholdsfortegnelse for #239 i Techlife News

There are some nifty features on New York City’s sleek new fleet of more than 2,000 buses, the first of which began hitting the streets this past week. But as modern as the buses are, with USB charging ports and free Wi-Fi, most will still initially lack technology to address perhaps the worst safety issue with the big vehicles, hitting pedestrians while making turns. “Amenities like Wi-Fi are welcome, and they certainly add to the experience of riding the bus, but the first priority should be on improvements to buses that save lives,” said Paul Steely White, executive director of the Transportation Alternatives advocacy group. Nationwide, collisions between pedestrians and city buses result in roughly one pedestrian death every 10 days, according to an estimate from the Amalgamated Transit Union,…

Upcoming virtual-reality headsets based on Google’s new Daydream VR system could give more people a taste of VR and make better games and applications affordable. But there are hurdles, including a need to buy a new Android phone - no iPhones. On Thursday, Google offered more details on its plans to develop a range of VR headsets that promise to be more comfortable and durable than its ultra-cheap Cardboard headset. Google will make one and share design guidelines with other manufacturers. There will also be a wireless motion controller - functioning like a fishing rod, a steering wheel or a pointer - to permit more-sophisticated VR experiences. Sophisticated systems such as Facebook’s Oculus Rift and the HTC Vive are expensive, limiting their appeal to gamers and other tech enthusiasts. Alternatively,…

Before there was “Halo” or “Call of Duty,” the first-person shooter video games “Wolfenstein” and “Doom” defined the trigger-happy genre in three dimensions. While the former received a thoughtful reimagining in 2014’s “Wolfenstein: The New Order,” the same can’t be said for a new “Doom.” “Doom” (Bethesda Softworks, for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC, $59.99) sticks closely to the wacky plot of the original 1993 game. Once again, players portray an unnamed space marine crudely blasting his way across Mars, where hellish demons of all shapes and sizes are pouring out of gaping interdimensional holes. It’s best not to think too much about the story. This is a game about shooting everything that moves until everything doesn’t move. There are no moral quandaries, battlefield allies, brainteasing puzzles or…

The Romanian hacker known as Guccifer, who is charged with breaking into computer accounts of the Bush family, Secretary of State Colin Powell and others, is scheduled to plead guilty to federal charges. A change-of-plea hearing is scheduled Wednesday at U.S. District Court in Alexandria for Marcel Lazar, 44, of Arad, Romania, according to court records. He pleaded not guilty last month to charges including cyberstalking, unauthorized access to computers and obstruction of justice. The court records do not specify which charges Lazar will plead to. His court-appointed lawyer, Shannon Quill, declined to comment Monday. Lazar is best known for alleged hacks into accounts held by the Bushes that revealed private family photos and paintings connected to former presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush. Lazar also made news…

It’s a bit of bad timing for “X-Men: Apocalypse” coming third in this summer’s superhero lineup. Director Bryan Singer invigorates his latest X-Men film with vintage 1980s charm in an origin story about how the mutant supergroup unites and divides in response to the villain Apocalypse. And while battles between heroes are an X-Men tradition, warring among the ranks has become a superhero trope this season, at play in both Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” and “Captain America: Civil War.” Like similarly dressed beauties in celebrity magazines, it becomes a case of who wore it better, and that’s an unfair burden on what is ultimately a satisfying conclusion to the rebooted trilogy. Even with an ensemble that includes Jennifer Lawrence and Michael Fassbender and Poe from “Star Wars” (Oscar…

Cloud Nine Kygo The debut album from Norwegian DJ and record producer Kygo has been in the pipeline for a long time, and trust us; it does not disappoint. With contributions from artists such as Labrinth and John Legend, this is a must-have for all dance music enthusiasts. FIVE FACTS: 1. Kygo – birth name Kyrre Gørvell-Dahll – began playing piano at the age of six. 2. Kygo has worked with various other notable artists including Coldplay, James Bay, and Avicii. 3. Cloud Nine features collaborations from artists such as John Legend, Tom Odell, and Matt Corby. 4. Kygo first gained notice through his remix of Ed Sheeran’s “I See Fire” which received millions of views over YouTube. 5. The album has reached number 1 on both the Norwegian Album…

Twitter is making some big changes, at least in the context of 140 characters or fewer. The social media service said Tuesday that in coming months, photos, videos and other media won’t count toward Twitter’s 140-character limit. Now, for example, when a user posts a photo, it counts for about 24 characters. That means slightly more wordy tweets are on the way. The change, announced Tuesday, is yet another attempt by the San Francisco company to make its messaging service easier to use, and to attract new users. Twitter did not, as many had speculated in recent months, abolish its character limit. Nor are weblinks exempt from the 140-character limit, which was also rumored. But replies to another user, which start with the “@” symbol and the user’s name, will…

The budding entrepreneurs wore glasses made of wooden tongue depressors to pitch their idea for glasses with a chip that lets you find them from your phone. “And they’ll have windshield wipers, so when they’re dirty or get water on them, you can wipe it up,” said Azariah Drungo, a fifth-grader at Public School 307 in Brooklyn. Azariah and her classmates spent the past week developing product ideas and as part of a mentorship program that sends engineers and designers from New York City’s burgeoning tech industry into high-poverty public schools. Backers hope the program, which is expanding to other cities, will inspire kids to consider high-tech careers and can eventually help boost diversity at companies like Google and Facebook. “As an African-American in the tech industry it can be…

With Apple announcing its first revenue drop in 13 years and reporting a near-13% fall in quarterly sales, it’s clear that the tech giant has to make changes to the way it operates its business if it wants to win back its record-breaking sales figures. Global smartphone sales in 2015 are  experiencing their slowest growth since 2008, and with Apple near- saturating the Western market, emerging markets such as China, India and other Asian countries prove an exciting opportunity to replicate its winning formula. With a huge Asian population, there’s ample opportunity for Apple to grow. It was only a matter of time before the $233-billion company would invest in India, and it was reported last month that it would do so by opening both an Apple Maps office in Hyderabad…

Facebook says it is dropping its reliance on news outlets to help determine what gets posted as a “trending topic” on the giant social network, a move adopted after a backlash over a report saying it suppressed conservative views. Facebook’s General Counsel Colin Stretch outlined the change in a 12-page letter sent Monday to Republican Sen. John Thune, chairman of the commerce committee, which oversees the Internet and consumer protections. The move comes less than a week after Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg met with Glenn Beck and more than a dozen other conservative commentators to address concerns stemming from a report in the tech blog Gizmodo. The Gizmodo report, which relied on a single anonymous former Facebook worker with self-described conservative leanings, claimed that Facebook downplays conservative news subjects on…

The European Union’s borderless single market is expanding only sluggishly into cyberspace, amid consumer concerns about security and whether it’s possible to return unwanted purchases, according to a new report published Monday. The EU strives to create a seamless market across the bloc’s 28 countries. But while 53 percent of European citizens now shop online, only 16 percent buy goods or services from another country, the European Digital Progress Report said. The report also showed smaller companies lagging behind their larger competitors. Only 7.5 percent of smaller companies in the EU sell online to other countries, an increase of just 1 percentage point since 2013. Larger companies are doing better, with 38 percent now selling online, seven percentage points higher than five years ago. According to the report, the most…

A solar-powered airplane’s planned flight from Ohio to Pennsylvania has been postponed. The Swiss-made Solar Impulse 2 is on an around-the-world journey. It was scheduled to fly from Dayton to the Lehigh Valley Tuesday morning, but project officials scrapped those plans late Monday night. Officials say that during a failure of the cabinet of the Solar Impulse’s mobile hangar, the plane was briefly touched by the hangar’s fabric. The cabinet distributes the fan power needed to keep the mobile hangar inflated. Officials say the plane does not appear to have sustained any damage, but they plan to examine it more closely over the next few days. The globe-circling voyage began in March from Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, and made stops in Oman, Myanmar, China and…

You might start seeing more ads when getting directions from Google’s popular mapping service. The ads, called “promoted pins,” will highlight restaurants and other merchants located along your way. They’ll show up inside the directions map as Google routes you to your destination. Google has displayed text ads alongside its online maps for several years. But the change announced Tuesday marks the first time the Internet company has inserted the equivalent of a digital billboard into the directions map itself. Google is importing the concept to its Maps app from Waze, a smaller traffic-navigation service that the company also runs. Google Maps boasts more than 1 billion users worldwide, but not everyone will see the new ads right away. The promoted pins will initially appear for a small group of…

What weighs 77 pounds, goes 50 mph (80 kph) and looks like a Swiss cheese on wheels? An electric motorcycle made from tiny aluminum alloy particles using a 3D printer. European aeronautics giant Airbus unveiled the ‘Light Rider ‘ in Germany on Friday. Manufactured by its subsidiary APWorks, a specialist in additive layer manufacturing, the motorcycle uses hollow frame parts that contain the cables and pipes. The frame weighs just 13 pounds, about 30 percent less than conventional e-motorbikes. APWorks chief executive Joachim Zettler said the complex, branched hollow structure wouldn’t have been possible with conventional production technologies such as milling or welding. The company is taking orders for a limited run of 50 motorbikes, costing 50,000 euros ($56,095), plus tax, each. They’ll have a range of 37 miles (60…

In October 2015, India’s billionth mobile phone subscription was signed, but this figure can provide a misleading impression of the South Asian country’s mobile phone market. A million Indians have mobile phone subscriptions, with many of these users having more than one connection for business purposes. By 2017, the number of mobile phone users in India is expected to rise to 730.7 million, so even a tiny slice of the Indian phone market would be lucrative for Apple. In January-March 2016, Apple’s iPhone sales grew by a whopping 56% in India, with Tim Cook promising to place more emphasis on the market. The Apple boss recently completed a visit to the country, where he announced he would be investing in India’s first Apple development centre. Cook also announced that he would…

In its first weekend in theaters, “The Angry Birds Movie” soared past “Captain America: Civil War,” dethroning the superhero pic from its first place run with $38.2 million to “Captain America’s” $32.9 million, according to studio actuals released Monday. The final numbers for “The Angry Birds Movie” were slightly less than Sunday estimates but still bode well for the PG-rated animated movie, which has earned $150 million worldwide. Newcomers “Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising” and “The Nice Guys,” both R-rated comedies, fared less well. “Neighbors 2” earned less than half of the first film’s opening weekend with $21.8 million, while “The Nice Guys” brought in only $11.2 million. Disney’s “The Jungle Book” rounded out the top five with $10.9 million, bringing its total to $327.4 million. The top 20 movies at…

Gods of Egypt When the God of Darkness takes over the throne of Egypt, it is turned from a place of peace into one of chaos. Young thief Bek then teams up with the God Horus in order to dethrone him and restore the empire to its former glory. FIVE FACTS: 1. Despite being set in Egypt, the movie features no Egyptian actors. 2. Director Alex Proyas was actually born in Egypt. However, he has Greek parents and moved to Australia when he was 3 years old. 3. The movie was shot in Australia. 4. Composer Marco Beltrami has previously scored Proyas’s movies Knowing and I, Robot. 5. Even thought Gerard Butler and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau play uncle and nephew, there is only a one year age difference between the two…

Apple CEO Tim Cook said Tuesday that apps are the future of television and that the company wants to help change the entertainment industry. Cook was speaking at a meeting of tech and other startups in Amsterdam, two months after Apple announced software enhancements for its TV system, Apple TV, and knocked $50 off the price of its smart watch. Since launching Apple TV, “it’s clear to us as we pull that string that there’s a lot left to do and we’d like to be a catalyst in changing the world of entertainment,” said Cook, whose company already radically changed the music industry with its iTunes store. The Apple boss told a meeting in the Dutch capital that the Apple Watch also should become a vital tool for wearers to…

Each night, 18-year-old Ryan Wilcox sleeps under a portrait of himself dressed as Captain America - the pinnacle of human strength and endurance. The Marvel Comics fan knows a thing or two about those heroic attributes. He is battling cancer for a second time in his life, and so when he recently received some disappointing news about his prognosis, his schoolmates rallied and called in the Avengers. On Monday, the 70-pound teen answered his front door and was shocked at what he saw: Iron Man Robert Downey Jr. and Captain America Chris Evans had not only put aside their differences on how to save the world, they had teamed up with “Iron Man” star Gwyneth Paltrow to carry out a mission to lift Wilcox’s spirits. “Hey what’s up buddy?” Evans…

India has successfully tested its first small space shuttle as part of its efforts to make low-cost reusable spacecraft. The Indian Space Research Organization said the shuttle lifted off on a rocket from a launch pad in southern India on Monday and completed a successful 13-minute test flight. Space expert Pallava Bagla, who writes for science magazines, said the test paves the way for India to embark on low-cost space missions. He said the United States and some other countries have abandoned the use of winged reusable spacecraft, but India hopes to bring down the cost of access to space by 90 percent by using reusable vehicles. “In this flight, critical technologies such as autonomous navigation, guidance and control, reusable thermal protection system and re-entry mission management have been successfully…

Police raided Google’s French headquarters Tuesday looking for evidence of “aggravated tax fraud,” marking one of Europe’s most conspicuous attempts yet to cast a U.S. technology leader as a manipulative scofflaw. The probe reflects an intensifying air of European indignation looming over Google and other U.S. tech companies as they amass huge amounts of cash while reducing their tax bills through complex maneuvers that shield their profits. As it has consistently done when confronted about its tax strategy, Google issued a statement Tuesday maintaining that it complies with all laws. The Mountain View, California, company, which is owned by Alphabet Inc., also said it is cooperating with the French investigation. Other major tech companies, including Apple Inc. and Facebook Inc., also have been skewered in Europe for scrimping on their…