Innholdsfortegnelse for #287 i Techlife News

“Star Wars” is coming back to the summer movie season. The Walt Disney Co. on Tuesday announced that the Colin Trevorrow-directed “Star Wars: Episode IX” would fly into theaters on May 24, 2019, making it the first in the main trilogy to debut in the summer box office season, which kicks off at the beginning of May. Both “The Force Awakens” and the upcoming “The Last Jedi” were December releases, as was the “Star Wars” spinoff “Rogue One.” The “Star Wars” anthology film focused on young Han Solo will test the Memorial Day weekend first with its previously announced May 25, 2018, release. Disney also set a barrage of release dates for the next few years, including for the fifth “Indiana Jones” film, the live-action “The Lion King” and “Frozen…

Samsung’s latest phones feature big wraparound screens and lots of glass. They also appear to break more easily, according to tests run by SquareTrade, a company that sells gadget-repair plans. The nearly all-glass design of Samsung’s Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus makes them beautiful, SquareTrade said, but also “extremely susceptible to cracking when dropped from any angle.” Samsung had no comment. The new phones have received positive reviews from The Associated Press and other outlets. Samsung says advanced orders for the S8 were 30 percent higher than that for the Galaxy S7 phones. The company didn’t release specific figures. The S8 starts at $750, which is about $100 higher than the S7. SquareTrade said Monday that cracks appeared on screens of both the S8 and S8 Plus after just one…

Fiat Chrysler and Google for the first time will offer rides to the public in the self-driving automobiles they are building under an expanding partnership. The companies announced in the spring of last year that they would build 100 self-driving Chrysler Pacifica hybrids minivans. Those vehicles have been tested in Arizona, California and Michigan. Waymo, Google’s self-driving car project, said that it will allow hundreds of people in Phoenix to take rides in the vehicles so that it can get feedback on the experience. People can apply on Waymo’s website. The company also said that it’s expanding its fleet to 500 Pacifica hybrids. Waymo - created by Google in 2009 - has given rides to the public before in its hometown of Mountain View, California. In 2015, it let a…

The Grammy Museum is putting rare Ella Fitzgerald memorabilia on display for what would have been the singing legend’s 100th birthday. The museum’s “Ella at 100: Celebrating the Artistry of EllaFitzgerald” exhibition includes the first Grammy Award that Fitzgerald won - the first awarded to an African-American woman - as well as some of her gowns, sheet music and personal telegrams. Fitzgerald died in 1996 at 79 from complications with diabetes and left few possessions beyond personal notes, but the exhibit puts a focus on what made Fitzgerald a star - her voice. Grammy Museum curator Nwaka Onwusa says she wants visitors to be captivated by her singing, so the exhibit includes video and audio of her early performances with jazz greats Count Basie or Duke Ellington. The exhibit is…

DAMN. Kendrick Lamar The fourth studio album by Compton-based rapper Kendrick Lamar may be less cohesive than his previous releases, but it’s strong opening song ‘BLOOD.’ sets the bar for the lyrical dexterity found on tracks like ‘XXX.’ and ‘FEAR.’The track ‘LOYALTY.’ features bars from Rihanna and lead single ‘HUMBLE.’ brings to light many of the superficial realities that men have allowed to grip them throughout history while making sense of the black woman’s place in society. FIVE FACTS: 1. Kendrick has cited some of his influences as Tupac Shakur, The Notorious B.I.G, Jay-Z, Nas and Eminem who he says are his favorite rappers. 2. He has received two civic honors, the California State Senate’s Generational Icon Aware in 2015 and the key to the city in 2016 for embodying…

Ridley Scott insists he is not a nostalgic person, but you wouldn’t know that looking at the 2017 movie calendar. Not only are audiences getting another “Alien” movie, “Alien: Covenant,” on May 19, but also a long-time-coming “Blade Runner” sequel in October. Scott made his name in Hollywood with “Alien” in 1979. It was the kind of genre-busting horror that continues to inspire pale imitations to this day. (Including one this year’s Jake Gyllenhaal and Ryan Reynolds space pic “Life.”) And then, in 1982, his futuristic neo-noir “Blade Runner” gave a new aesthetic to our dystopian future. It may have confounded most upon its release, but the sublime mind-bender has gained a cult and eventually popular following over the years. While the titles might suggest otherwise, Scott says he’s more…

Though perhaps best known as Facebook’s No. 2 executive, Sheryl Sandberg is also a mentor, a mother, a billionaire and an author. When her husband Dave Goldberg died suddenly in 2015 while they were vacationing in Mexico, she added “widow” to the list. “The grief felt like a void, like it was sucking me in and pushing on me, pulling me in and I couldn’t even see or breathe,” she said in an interview with The Associated Press. “People who have been through things like this told me it gets better. And I really didn’t believe them.... I want other people going through things to believe it does get better.” Her new book - “Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resilience and Finding Joy,” written with psychologist Adam Grant - chronicles…

When an Icelander arrives at an office building and sees “Solarfri” posted, they need no further explanation for the empty premises: The word means “when staff get an unexpected afternoon off to enjoy good weather.” The people of this rugged North Atlantic island settled by Norsemen some 1,100 years ago have a unique dialect of Old Norse that has adapted to life at the edge of the Artic. Hundslappadrifa, for example, means “heavy snowfall with large flakes occurring in calm wind.” But the revered Icelandic language, seen by many as a source of identity and pride, is being undermined by the widespread use of English, both for mass tourism and in the voice-controlled artificial intelligence devices coming into vogue. Linguistics experts, studying the future of a language spoken by fewer…

Google has sprinkled some new ingredients into its search engine in an effort to prevent bogus information and offensive suggestions from souring its results. The changes have been in the works for four months, but Google hadn’t publicly discussed most of them until now. The announcement in a blog post reflects Google’s confidence in a new screening system designed to reduce the chances that its influential search engine will highlight untrue stories about people and events, a phenomenon commonly referred to as “fake news.” “It’s not a problem that is going to go all the way to zero, but we now think we can stay a step ahead of things,” said Ben Gomes, Google’s vice president of engineering for search. CORRECTING AUTOCOMPLETE Besides taking steps to block fake news from…

Old cars can learn new tricks. For a few hundred dollars, drivers can add new safety technology - like forward collision warning systems or backup cameras - to older cars. Cars are lasting longer than ever thanks to improving quality. The average U.S. vehicle is now 11.6 years old, according to the consulting firm IHS Markit. But that means millions of car owners are missing out on technology that could potentially save their lives. Forward collision warning systems, for example, can reduce the risk of a crash by 27 percent, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. Consumers have to do the math to decide whether it’s better to add aftermarket systems to an older car or save up for a new one. Balance the cost of new safety…

YouTube is launching a new music competition series for emerging artists featuring Backstreet Boys, Demi Lovato and Jason Derulo. Ryan Seacrest Productions and Endemol Shine North America announced Wednesday that “Best. Cover.Ever” will debut on YouTube later this year. Ludacris will host the series, where pop stars will give budding artists a chance to perform a cover of one of their songs. The winner will perform a duet version of the song with the star, which will debut on YouTube. Fans can submit videos through May 19 for the first phase. The songs include Backstreet Boys’ “As Long As You Love Me,” Lovato’s “Confident” and Derulo’s “Trumpets.” Additional artist-participants will be announced at a later date. Online: http://thebestcoverever.com/…

The desperate effort this week to find two hikers who disappeared at the bottom of the Grand Canyon represented the National Park Service’s most extensive use yet of drones in a search-and-rescue mission. The Grand Canyon is the only national park with its own fleet of unmanned aircraft for locating people who have gotten lost, stranded, injured or killed. Under a program that began last fall, it has five drones and four certified operators. While the aerial search for the two hikers came up empty, it threw a spotlight on technology that can enter crevices and other rugged spots unreachable by foot while sparing searchers the dangers of going up in a helicopter. With its steep cliffs, nearly 2,000 square miles and mesmerizing views, the Grand Canyon can be as…

Does the summer movie season still exist? It was once an air-conditioned oasis that drew lines around the block of audiences eager for the roller-coaster ride of “Indiana Jones,” the shark bite of “Jaws” and the buzz of a lightsaber. But in a time where the mega-movie business is year-round, that once hallowed season of moviegoing - maybe the quintessential big-screen, popcorn-eating experience - no longer means the same thing. The summer blockbuster didn’t wilt away. It grew too big to content itself just with just May through August. Studios, seeing open real estate elsewhere on the calendar, have in recent years begun spreading out their spectacles through the year. Like a King Kong that broke its chains, the summer movie now lumbers down every avenue. It’s blockbuster gentrification. There’s…

“The Fate of the Furious” topped the box office for the second week in a row with $38.4 million, bringing the total North American take for the film to $163.3 million. With international grosses, the film is expected to cross $1 billion this week. Holdovers crushed a slew of underwhelming newcomers, including Disney Nature’s “Born in China,” which opened in sixth place with $4.8 million; the steamy thriller “Unforgettable” that debuted in seventh with $4.8 million; and the costly historical epic “The Promise,” which launched in ninth place with only $4.1 million. The top films looked much the same as the past few weeks, with “The Boss Baby” in second with $12.7 million and “Beauty and the Beast” in third with $9.7 million. The top 20 movies at U.S. and…

Foreign governments that rely on the services of private criminal hackers leave their operations vulnerable to being exposed and disrupted, creating a “silver living” for U.S. law enforcement investigations of cyberattacks, a top Justice Department official said Monday. Criminal hackers hired by nations are more likely to travel and expose themselves to the risk of being arrested and prosecuted, and may be less savvy about evading detection, Adam Hickey, a deputy assistant attorney general in the Justice Department’s national security division, said during a cybersecurity discussion at Georgetown University. “That matters because apprehending them ... can give us the human intelligence into state-sponsored hacking that can be very, very valuable,” Hickey said. The blended model of foreign government official and hired criminal hacker was illustrated in a punishing 2014 hack…

Internet companies are readying for a showdown with telecoms and a Republican-controlled government over a policy near and dear to their hearts: net neutrality. Net neutrality basically prevents broadband providers from playing favorites or steering users toward (or away from) particular internet sites. Under rules enacted during the Obama administration, the likes of Comcast and Verizon - which offer their own video services they’d very much like subscribers to use - can’t slow down Netflix, can’t block YouTube, and can’t charge Spotify extra to stream faster than Pandora. Broadband companies hate the net neutrality rules, and they have an ally in new Federal Communications Commission chairman Ajit Pai, who has repeatedly called the regulations a mistake. Pai could launch the process of unwinding the rules as early as Wednesday, according…

As Dubai races toward a future of self-driving cars and drones filling up its high-rise-studded skyline, cybersecurity is becoming a growing concern in a region replete with examples of cyberattacks. The sheikhdom is hosting a cybersecurity conference this week and at it, a Dubai official involved in protecting the emirate from hacking and other electronic maliciousness offered a rare interview Wednesday describing its efforts. “It’s relentless,” said Amer Sharaf, the director of compliance at the Dubai Electronic Security Center. “You always have to be up and ahead of the game.” The center, created by decree in 2014, has some 60 employees and hopes to hire another 30 this year, Sharaf said. It oversees government efforts to protect Dubai’s government computer systems and infrastructure, as well as plan and respond to…

Uber is taking to the skies with its next project - “flying cars” - even as all eyes are on its problems on the ground. On Tuesday, the embattled ride-hailing company announced plans for an on-demand network of electric aircraft that can take off and land vertically, like a helicopter. It wants to test a network for such vehicles by 2020. The company says its partners in this Elevate initiative include real estate companies, aircraft manufacturers, electric vehicle charger makers and the cities of Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas. Uber’s Jeff Holden says urban aviation “is a natural next step for Uber.” Uber has been reeling from executive departures and accusations of sexual harassment at its workplace. Results of an internal investigation are expected in May.…

You’d think Twitter would be able to milk its status as President Donald Trump’s megaphone. But the company still faces stagnant user growth, has never made a profit and even reported a quarterly revenue decline Wednesday, a first since going public. Trump’s frequent tweets ricochet well beyond his 28 million Twitter followers. Anything he tweets can serve as fodder for social media, TV news shows and, often, late-night comedy. Analysts say Twitter’s user engagement - how often people respond, retweet or “like,” for instance - likely benefited from “political discourse” in the first quarter. The problem: The people already on Twitter may well be using it more, but America’s first true “Twitter President” hasn’t inspired others to sign up for Twitter en masse. BY THE NUMBERS Twitter said Wednesday it…

SATELLITES FOR EXTENDING INTERNET ACCESS If you have been keeping a close eye on all of the recently circulating rumors about what Apple is currently cooking up, you could easily become excited thinking what the company’s development laboratories must look like. Basically, imagine some kind of tech equivalent of the colorful and vibrant world of Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory - where augmented reality glasses, self-driving cars, satellites, and possibly even spaceships are being thoroughly tested by excited Apple staffers... Truth be told, the picture that we have just painted is probably more of a best-case scenario than a faithful reflection of what is actually happening behind those closed doors. Maybe the more outlandish of those ideas are, like Willy Wonka’s “square sweets that look round”, just the stuff of fantasy...…

The world’s last male northern white rhino has joined the Tinder dating app as wildlife experts make a last-chance breeding effort to keep his species alive. “I don’t mean to be too forward, but the fate of the species literally depends on me,” the rhino’s profile says. “I perform well under pressure.” The campaign called “The Most Eligible Bachelor in the World,” by a Kenyan wildlife conservancy and the dating app, focuses on the rhino named Sudan. The 43-year-old and his last two female companions are unable to breed naturally because of issues that include old age. Ol Pejeta Conservancy and the app aim to raise $9 million for research into breeding methods, including in-vitro fertilization, in an effort to save the species from extinction. “We partnered with Ol Pejeta…

Sleepless When undercover police officer Vincent Downs (Jamie Foxx) finds himself caught in a web of corrupt cops and murderous gangsters, it leads to the kidnapping of his teenage son. Downs must race against time to save him and bring the criminals to justice. FIVE FACTS: 1. This movie is a remake of the French-Belgian movie Sleepless Night, which was released in 2011. 2. It is the English-language debut of Swiss director Baran bo Odar. 3. This is the second time in which Gabrielle Union plays a character whose love interest is named David. The first time is in the TV series Being Mary Jane. 4. Jamie Foxx and Gabrielle Union previously co-starred together in Breakin’ All the Rules (2004). 5. This is the second film in which Jamie Foxx…

James Cameron has set the release dates for the next four “Avatar” sequels, with the first coming in 2020. The movie’s Facebook page posted a photo of Cameron and his massive film crew, who have been working on all four films simultaneously. The post said “Avatar 2” will hit theaters Dec. 18, 2020, and “Avatar 3” comes a year later, on Dec. 17, 2021. The franchise then takes a three-year hiatus before returning with “Avatar 4” on Dec. 20, 2024, and “Avatar 5” on Dec. 19, 2025. The first sequel had been expected in 2018 but Cameron this year said that timetable wouldn’t be met. The original 2009 “Avatar” film has netted over $2.7 billion, centering on the conflict between humans and the blue-skinned alien race Na’vi of Pandora.…

Internet companies are readying for a showdown with a Republican-controlled government over a policy near and dear to their hearts: net neutrality. Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai said in a Wednesday speech that he wants to ditch the Obama-era rules, hated by telecoms, that prevent broadband and wireless companies from interfering with the sites and apps that consumers use. He wants to undo their legal basis and to eliminate the FCC’s broad powers to monitor Verizon, AT&T and Comcast for bad behavior. Pai, the nation’s chief telecommunications regulator, said he will seek an FCC vote at a May 18 meeting. The FCC plans to release an official proposal for the vote on Thursday. Pai doesn’t have an immediate plan to replace net neutrality, but is seeking input on how…

Microsoft’s cloud business propelled its fiscal third-quarter earnings above Wall Street’s expectations, but revenue fell short, sending the software maker’s stock lower in after-hours trading. Microsoft Corp. said Thursday that it earned $4.8 billion, or 61 cents per share, in the January-March period. That’s up 28 percent from $3.76 billion, or 47 cents per share, in the same period a year earlier. Excluding one-time items, Microsoft earned $5.71 billion, or 73 cents per share. That’s up 13 percent from $5.04 billion, or 63 cents per share, a year earlier. The company posted revenue of $22.09 billion, up 8 percent from $20.53 billion. Adjusted revenue, which is more closely followed by analysts, was $23.56 billion, up 6 percent from last year’s $22.16 billion. Microsoft’s earnings were above expectations, but revenue fell…

One of Comcast’s fastest-growing businesses hasn’t been selling cable or internet subscriptions - or making movies and TV shows, or selling TV ads. It’s been theme parks. Since 2011, when Comcast first took over NBCUniversal’s film and TV studios, cable and broadcast networks, TV stations and theme parks, the parks have been one of its biggest revenue drivers. It was, of course, a smaller business to begin with, leaving more room for growth, but that isn’t the whole explanation. Cable subscriptions dropped for a decade before growth resumed last year (although cable revenue still inexorably ticked higher). TV advertising faces a threat from digital giants Facebook and Google, who can target ads precisely to users. Films are an up-and-down business. And the company is bullish on the parks. “We’re expecting…