Innholdsfortegnelse for #289 i Techlife News

Apple Inc. became the first U.S. company with a market value of more $800 billion as investors bet the next iPhone will spur a resurgence in sales. The stock rose 1 percent this week to close at $153.99 in New York, giving it a market capitalization of about $803 billion. The shares have gained 33 percent since the start of the year, helped by a buyback program that Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook extended to total $210 billion last week, from $175 billion last year. Apple’s rise to the top of the world’s largest equity market highlights the emergence of mobile technology and the relative decline of the oil industry in recent years. Exxon Mobil Corp.’s value peaked in the fall of 2007, when oil prices climbed toward $100 a…

The Justice Department is probing allegations that Uber used phony software to thwart city officials looking at whether the ride-hailing company was following local regulations. The city of Portland, Oregon, said in an April audit reportthat it was notified of the federal inquiry by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in San Francisco. Portland says it is cooperating. Uber and the U.S. Attorney’s Office both declined to comment. Reuters and other news outlets have reported that the investigation is a criminal probe currently before a grand jury. GREYBALLING THE OVERSEERS Uber’s software - nicknamed “Greyball” - identified regulators who posed as riders while trying to collect evidence that Uber’s service was breaking taxi laws. Uber allegedly served up a fake version of its app to make it appear the undercover regulators were…

Facebook’s shadow continues to hang over Snapchat as its parent company reported disappointing numbers. Snap Inc., best known for disappearing messages even though it has evolved to become much more, had a massive loss and saw user growth continue to slow down in the first three months of the year. Its revenue was below Wall Street’s expectations in its first quarterly earnings since its initial public offering of stock. Snapchat has tried to become more like its bigger rival - at least when it comes to success - by courting new users and with them, advertisers. Instead, Snapchat reported 166 million daily active users in the latest quarter, an increase of just 36 percent from a year earlier. In its first post-IPO report in 2012, Facebook also disappointed investors when…

APPLE OVERTAKES FITBIT AS KING OF THE WEARABLES While Apple has always been seen as a leader when it comes to smartphones, tablets, and computers, it was only in 2015 that the company joined the wearables market. And, although the Apple Watch was met with fanfare from fans and technology journalists, others panned the product and predicted an imminent downfall. Apple Watch has, however, managed to disrupt the wearable technology market and make a name for itself – just as analysts long predicted in the months and years before the product was announced. It was inevitable that the Watch would enjoy success – it comes from the world’s most respected consumer technology company, and features cutting-edge hardware that provides its users with true value and appeal. And, while Apple remains tight-lipped…

Tony Gonzalez is joining Fox’s NFL pregame show. The record-setting tight end during a 17-year career that ended in 2013 will be a studio analyst on “NFL Kickoff,’ Fox’s hour-long Sunday pregame show. He already has experience in such a role, having worked on CBS’“NFL Today” from 2014-16. “Tony is an impressive talent with an infectious personality, and is the perfect addition to our Fox ‘NFL Kickoff’ show,” said John Entz, president of production and executive producer at Fox Sports. “He brings a unique outlook that will really round out the table.” The program also has featured Hall of Famers Terry Bradshaw and Howie Long, former Cowboys and Dolphins coach Jimmy Johnson, and host Curt Menefee. For more NFL coverage…

This Old Dog Mac Demarco When compared to the two albums that precede it, This Old Dog is a lot less lyrically cluttered and more easy going on the guitar effects that relate to his style. More acoustic guitar brings to mind singer-songwriters such as Harry Nilsson and Randy Newman but without losing the defining sound that Demarco is known for. Sentimental statements are madeon tracks such as “My Old Man” and “Moonlight on the River,” showing a refinement of the sound that many appreciated in his last two albums. FIVE FACTS: 1. Mac’s music has been described as “blue wave” or “slacker rock.” 2. His real name is Vernor Winfield McBriare Smith IV, and he was born in Duncan, British Columbia. 3. The title of his albumSalad Days comes…

Amazon is giving its voice-enabled Echo speaker a touch screen and video-calling capabilities as it competes with Google’s efforts at bringing “smarts” to the home. The 7-inch screen on the new Echo Show enables the speaker to supplement voice responses with visuals and other information displays , similar to the Echo-like features on the Fire tablets and Fire TV streaming devices. That could mean extended weather forecasts, not just current conditions, or music lyrics to go with the song you’re listening to. You can also call up cooking tutorials on YouTube, hands-free, while making dinner in the kitchen. You’ll also be able to make video calls with other Echo Show devices or the Alexa app for iPhones and Android phones. Two previous models, the original Echo and the smaller Echo…

Microsoft says a half billion devices are now running Windows 10, its latest operating system. That’s up from 400 million disclosed last September, but far short of a goal of 1 billion by 2018. Microsoft has already acknowledged it won’t hit 1 billion in time . Getting halfway has taken nearly two years. Windows 10 represents a comeback for Microsoft after a disastrous Windows 8 launch and heavy competition from phone systems such as Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android. Getting more devices on Windows 10 will help encourage companies to make more apps and services for it. CEO Satya Nadella disclosed the figure Wednesday at a Microsoft conference in Seattle. After getting Microsoft on track to prioritizing mobile devices and internet-based services, Nadella says artificial intelligence will get a bigger…

Norway’s second-largest supermarket chain says it has launched reverse vending machines that give customers discount coupons for new batteries when they deposit old ones for recycling. Coop Norway spokesman Harald Kristiansen said this week that the company believes the Swedish-made machines are the world’s first for batteries. Similar machines exist for glass and plastic bottles. Kristiansen says just under 2,500 batteries have been collected in the three weeks since they were introduced. Battery recycling is mandatory in Norway. Kristiansen says about 2,000 tons of batteries are used in the country each year, most collected as special waste. However, a survey commission by Coop showed that as many as 26 percent of the supermarket’s customers tossed used batteries in their household trash.…

An extradition hearing in the Czech Republic for a Russian man who faces charges in the U.S. of hacking computers at American companies has been delayed for procedural reasons. Judge Jaroslav Pytloun delayed the hearing until May 30 due to formal objections from Yevgeniy Nikulin’s defense lawyers. They say Nikulin has not received the previous decision of the state prosecutors that he can be extradited to either the United States or Russia in Russian, and one of the lawyers claimed he was not formally informed that Nikulin can be extradited to the United States. Thursday’s hearing was held at Prague’s Pankrac prison. The rare measure adopted due to security reasons underlines the sensitivity of the case. Czech authorities arrested Nikulin in Prague on Oct. 5 in cooperation with the FBI.…

A techno-infused opera about the life of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs has earned the financial backing of opera companies in San Francisco and Seattle, ensuring the musical meditation on the iconic entrepreneur will travel to America’s high-tech enclave. The partnerships were announced Tuesday as the Santa Fe Opera prepared for its July world premiere of “The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs” at its open-air summer stage in the foothills of New Mexico’s Sangre de Cristo Mountains. The Seattle Opera and the San Francisco Opera are underwriting both the already completed artistic creation of the opera, led by composer and electronica DJ Mason Bates, and its physical stage production. As co-producers, the companies guarantee their right to performances beyond Santa Fe in California and Washington. The Jacobs School of Music at Indiana…

Facebook says its researchers have found a new way to use artificial intelligence to translate material on its social network faster and more accurately. This could mean Facebook users eventually seeing everything translated immediately into their preferred language, not just post but videos too. Facebook already translates posts in more than 45 languages, but CEO Mark Zuckerberg says there is still “a lot more to do.” For now, Facebook has made the research and its methods publicly available so developers and others can use it to build translation and other language tools. Beyond language translation, the technology can be used for chatbots, for example, or other language-based tasks. The method uses something called a convolutional neural network, a technology that’s already used for image processing and other types of machine…

You may not have thought much about the 2009 movie “Avatar” over the past eight years, but Disney sure has. The Magic Kingdom is wagering a reported half-billion dollars that you and zillions of other people will line up for new theme park attractions based on the movie’s bioluminescent world of Pandora. It’s a major gamble, even by Disney standards. While the movie smashed box-office records thanks to its dazzling 3-D effects and higher 3-D ticket prices, it’s also left little but a fading echo in pop-culture consciousness. There are no “Avatar” sequels, at least yet, and no spinoffs; memorable characters and catchphrases are also in short supply. “I’ve never seen anybody ever walking down street wearing an Avatar t-shirt,” says Martin Lewison, a theme park expert and business management…

Telecommunications company Sinclair Broadcast Group is close to an agreement to buy rival TV station operator Tribune Media. The New York Times reports talks were continuing Sunday and a deal may be announced Monday. The newspaper is citing unnamed officials who they say were briefed on the matter. Fox News owner 21st Century Fox and a New York investment firm were recently in talks to buy Tribune, seeking to acquire Tribune-owned local TV stations including WGN in Chicago and PIX 11 in New York. The newspaper reported that Sinclair beat out competitors with a $44-per-share bid, valuing Chicago-based Tribune at about $3.8 billion. Tribute spokesman Gary Weitman declined to comment to The Associated Press. Spokespeople for Sinclair, based in Hunt Valley, Maryland, couldn’t be reached for comment. Sinclair’s move on…

After a backlash over programming Netflix films, the Cannes Film Festival said that it will, beginning next year, only accept theatrically released films for its prestigious Palme d’Or competition. In a statement Wednesday, the French festival announced that it has adapted its rules to require that films in competition be distributed in French movie theaters. The festival said it was “pleased to welcome a new operator which has decided to invest in cinema but wants to reiterate its support to the traditional mode of exhibition of cinema in France and in the world.” Cannes this year for the first time selected two films in its official competition from Netflix: Noah Baumbach’s “The Meyerowitz Stories” and Bong Joon Ho’s “Okja.” The selections prompted immediate criticism from French exhibitors. In France, the…

James Gunn’s comic, cosmic Marvel sequel “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2” kicked off the summer movie season with a $146.5 million debut in North America, according to final studio figures Monday. Hollywood counts the summer season -during which about 40 percent of its annual ticket sales are sold - as running from the first weekend of May through Labor Day. Marvel has long staked out the first weekend, and this year, it and the Walt Disney Co. pushed forward what was once one of Marvel’s more oddball, uncertain properties onto the main stage. It worked. Riding the positive response of the 2014 original, as well as good reviews (82 percent “fresh” on Rotten Tomatoes) and strong word of mouth (an A CinemaScore from audiences), “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.…

Burger King pulled a pretty juicy marketing stunt last month that drew plenty of attention - not just to the Whopper, but also to the intrinsic vulnerabilities of a new type of voice-activated gadget. The fast food chain’s 15-second television ad targeted Google Home, a speaker that can answer questions and control other smart appliances. When an actor in the ad said “OK, Google” and asked a question about the Whopper, Google Home obediently began reading the burger’s ingredients in homes around the country - effectively extending the commercial for however long it took someone to shout “OK, Google, stop!” Google and Wikipedia quickly made fixes to shut it down. Though annoying, the stunt may have done some good by highlighting how easy it is to hijack such devices. (Just…

U.S. military officials say an unmanned aircraft orbiting Earth since May 2015 has landed in Florida. The Air Force posted tweets that the X37B shuttle landed Sunday morning at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral after 718 days in orbit. Multiple media outlets reported that the 29-foot-long aircraft’s return caused a sonic boom that rattled central Florida and could be heard as far away as Tampa and Fort Myers. It’s the shuttle’s first landing in Florida. Previous X37B missions have landed at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. In a statement , officials said the X37B shuttle is “an experimental test program to demonstrate technologies for a reliable, reusable, unmanned space test platform for the U.S. Air Force.” Another mission is scheduled to launch from Cape Canaveral later this…

Television journalist Julia Kirienko was sheltering with Ukrainian soldiers and medics two miles (three kilometers) from the front when their cellphones began buzzing over the noise of the shelling. Everyone got the same text message at the same time. “Ukrainian soldiers,” it warned, “they’ll find your bodies when the snow melts.” Text messages like the one Kirienko received have been sent periodically to Ukrainian forces fighting pro-Russian separatists in the eastern part of the country. The threats and disinformation represent a new form of information warfare, the 21st-century equivalent of dropping leaflets on the battlefield. “This is pinpoint propaganda,” said Nancy Snow, a professor of public diplomacy at the Kyoto University of Foreign Studies. The Associated Press has found that the messages are almost certainly being sent through cell site…

In just a few years, well-mannered self-driving robotaxis will share the roads with reckless, law-breaking human drivers. The prospect is causing migraines for the people developing the robotaxis. A self-driving car would be programmed to drive at the speed limit. Humans routinely exceed it by 10 to 15 mph (16 to 24 kph) - just try entering the New Jersey Turnpike at normal speed. Self-driving cars wouldn’t dare cross a double yellow line; humans do it all the time. And then there are those odd local traffic customs to which humans quickly adapt. In Los Angeles and other places, for instance, there’s the “California Stop,” where drivers roll through stop signs if no traffic is crossing. In Southwestern Pennsylvania, courteous drivers practice the “Pittsburgh Left,” where it’s customary to let…

Facebook says it has deleted tens of thousands of accounts in Britain ahead of the June 8 general election in a drive to battle fake news. The tech giant also took out newspaper advertisements in Britain’s media offering advice on how to spot such stories. The ads suggest that readers should be “skeptical of headlines,” and to “look closely at the URL.” The company says it has made improvements to help them detect fake news accounts more effectively. Simon Milner, the tech firm’s U.K. director of policy, says the platform wants to get to the “root of the problem” and is working with outside organizations to fact check and analyze content around the election. Milner says Facebook is “doing everything we can to tackle the problem of false news.”…

Tomorrowland was originally going to be called World of Tomorrow. Frontierland was Frontier Country. Lilliputian Land never became a reality at Disneyland. And no one could have foreseen a “Star Wars” land opening in 2019. Walt Disney spent a marathon weekend in 1953 brainstorming ideas for the new family amusement park he envisioned called Disneyland. There would be a train station and an old-fashioned Main Street square. The park would have a princess castle and a pirate ship, maybe even a rocket. Disney wanted to get investors on board, so he described the various elements he imagined to artist Herb Ryman, who translated them into a hand-drawn map - Disneyland’s first. That original concept art could fetch as much as $1 million when it goes up for auction next month,…

Comcast and Charter have agreed to cooperate on upcoming cellphone services as both cable companies face growing threats from national wireless carriers such as AT&T and Verizon. The cable companies said that while they’ll offer wireless services separately to customers, they will work together on behind-the-scenes matters like customer billing and device-ordering systems. They said the agreement will save money and help them compete with the national providers. As part of the deal, announced this week, Comcast and Charter agreed that they wouldn’t buy other wireless companies for one year, or make related deals without consulting each other first. It also includes restrictions on any transaction that would give another company a majority ownership or voting power in either Comcast or Charter. The deal comes amid speculation of impending consolidation…

I Am Not Your Negro Although James Baldwin failed to finish his manuscript for Remember this House, filmmaker Raoul Peck has brought it to life in this up to date examination of race in America. Using Baldwin’s original words and rich archival material, I Am Not Your Negro is a journey into black history, connecting the Civil Rights Movement to the present #BlackLivesMatter. Questioning black representation in Hollywood and confronting the connections between the lives and assassinations of Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King Jr., it challenges the definition of what America stands for today. FIVE FACTS: 1. The word “negro” is used 78 times in the film. 2. The film is narrated by Samuel L. Jackson. 3. It was one of 15 films included on the shortlist…

Michael Parks, a prolific character actor who found early fame in 1960s countercultural roles and later became a favorite of directors including Quentin Tarantino and Kevin Smith, has died. He was 77. He died on Tuesday in Los Angeles, his agent, Jane Schulman, said on Wednesday. No cause of death was announced. In a career that spanned six decades, Parks acted in more than 100 films and TV shows. Many of his early starring roles were in anti-establishment ‘60s-era films such as “Wild Seed,” ‘’The Happening,” with Anthony Quinn, and “Bus Riley’s Back in Town,” alongside Ann-Margret. Parks also starred as a disillusioned, motorcycle-riding newsman in the 1969 series “Then Came Bronson.” For the series, Parks, who recorded a number of albums throughout his career, sang the popular closing theme…

A top European Union judge says the ride-sharing service Uber is a transport company and could be required to obtain licenses and permits under national law in the 28 EU member states. The case was brought to the European Court of Justice by a taxi company in Spain that claimed a Barcelona Uber branch was engaged in unfair competition. Advocate General Maciej Szpunar said in a legal opinion Thursday that Uber there was providing a comprehensive system for on-demand urban transport that can be regulated. This means it could not be considered an “information society service” that would benefit from EU principles on the freedom to provide services. Such opinions are non-binding but are often endorsed by the ECJ. National courts have banned Uber services in other European cities.…

The Vatican is celebrating the big-bang theory. That’s not as out of this world as it sounds. The Vatican Observatory has invited leading scientists and cosmologists to talk black holes, gravitational waves and space-time singularities as it honors the late Jesuit cosmologist considered one of the fathers of the idea that the universe began with a gigantic explosion. The Tuesday-Friday conference honoring Monsignor George Lemaitre is being held at the Vatican Observatory, founded by Pope Leo XIII in 1891 to help correct the notion that the Roman Catholic Church was hostile to science. The perception has persisted in some circles since Galileo’s heresy trial 400 years ago, even though the observatory and Catholic universities around the globe have produced top-notch science over the centuries. In 1927, Lemaitre was the first…

The United States watched Russians hack France’s computer networks during the election and tipped off French officials before it became public, a U.S. cyber official told the Senate. France’s election campaign commission said Saturday that “a significant amount of data” - and some information that was likely fake - was leaked on social networks following a hacking attack on centrist Emmanuel Macron’s successful presidential campaign. France’s government cybersecurity agency is investigating what a government official described as a “very serious” breach. The leak came 36 hours before the nation voted Sunday in a crucial presidential runoff between Macron and far-right candidate Marine Le Pen. The election commission said the leaked data apparently came from Macron’s “information systems and mail accounts from some of his campaign managers” - a data theft…