Innholdsfortegnelse for #291 i Techlife News

Uber is threatening to fire a key executive accused of stealing self-driving car technology from a Google spin-off unless he waives his constitutional right against self-incrimination so the ride-hailing service can comply with a court order. The development raises the possibility that Uber may end up dumping Anthony Levandowski, whose expertise in robot-controlled cars is the main reason that the ride-hailing company bought Levandowski’s startup for $680 million nine months ago. Until last month, Levandowski had been running Uber’s self-driving car division. Although he no longer is doing that, he remains a vital part of Uber’s effort to develop a fleet of robot cars so its service eventually will no longer have to rely on people to pick up passengers. Waymo, a self-driving car company started by Google, alleges Levandowski…

Microsoft is refreshing its Surface Pro tablet with longer battery life and faster processors. The new, fifth-generation device - simply called Surface Pro - won’t look or feel drastically different from its predecessor. But Microsoft is hoping its under-the-hood improvements will help it compete with newer laptop-tablet hybrids from Samsung and others. Not to mention Apple’s iPad Pro. The Redmond, Washington, company made the announcement Tuesday in Shanghai, China, in its first Surface launch outside New York. It’s a reflection of the company’s expectations of growth among a population that prizes premium gadgets from American brands. Microsoft pioneered laptop-tablet hybrids, also known as 2-in-1s, with the original Surface in 2012. A keyboard cover turns the tablet into a laptop. But innovation has slowed down since 2014, when the Surface Pro…

This year’s Cannes Film Festival has been a sprawling, international referendum on Netflix, with votes registered in catcalls and applause, and some of the biggest names in cinema staking out their positions. As the world’s largest and most prestigious film festival, Cannes has often been a kind of glitzy, French Riviera town hall that measures the fluctuations of the movie industry. This year, the seismic impact of Netflix and its swelling movie ambitions have taken center stage. The festival for the first time has two Netflix films in competition for the coveted Palme d’Or top prize: South Korean director Bong Joon-ho’s “Okja” and Noah Baumbach’s Adam Sandler-led “The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected”). Those selections sparked an outcry from French exhibitors, who recoiled at the thought of one of cinema’s…

Facebook is expanding its fundraising tools that let users ask friends and strangers to give them money to help pay for education, medical or other expenses. The company has been testing the tool, which is similar to online fundraising services such as GoFundMe, since March. With the latest update, it has added sports and community fundraisers as options. It’s also possible to raise money for medical expenses for pets, crisis relief, funerals, and a slew of other categories. To start a fundraiser, scroll down the “menu” icon on mobile until you get to the “fundraisers” category. On desktop, visit facebook.com/ fundraisers . Facebook says it will review all fundraisers within 24 hours. There is a fee of 6.9 percent plus 30 cents for payment processing, vetting and security.…

Captain Jack Sparrow might be a household name, but despite the cultural clout, the“Pirates of the Caribbean”franchise has gone adrift. In some ways, it’s been a series of diminishing returns, and they’re not done yet. As the fifth film,“Dead Men Tell No Tales,”prepares to set sail Friday, it’s already facing a few hurdles, including a changed blockbuster landscape, a star with a diminished profile and a six-year gap between installments. In 2003 “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl” washed ashore like a revelation - Walt Disney Studios had made a good movie based on a theme park ride, and created an iconic (and money-making) character for Johnny Depp in the process. Fourteen years later things look quite different. The films, which have earned $3.7 billion globally,…

U2 still has as much to say about America as when they made“The Joshua Tree”30 years ago. On“The Joshua Tree”tour, they’re delivering the message sonically and visually, backed by a stadium-wide high-resolution video screen. Bono, the Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr. wrapped the first week of their North American and European tour Sunday with a two-hour show at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. They played their Grammy-winning album in its entirety in front of a packed house that included Maria Shriver, Josh Brolin and Quincy Jones. Bono sang a few bars from the“La La Land”song “City of Stars,”gave a shout-out to his wife and daughters, and dedicated a song to the late Chris Cornell. U2 knows how to put on an arena spectacular, and“The Joshua Tree”delivers -…

Facebook’s CEO returned to Harvard Thursday, telling graduates that it is up to their generation to create a purpose for today’s world, to care about others, to fight inequality and strengthen the global community. “Change starts local. Even global changes start small - with people like us,” Mark Zuckerberg said after sharing anecdotes about graduates like David Razu Aznar, a former city leader who led the effort to legalize gay marriage in Mexico City, and Agnes Igoye, who grew up in conflict zones in Uganda and now trains law enforcement officers. “And this is my story too. A student in a dorm room, connecting one community at a time, and keeping at it until one day we can connect the whole world,” said the 33-year-old billionaire, who received an honorary…

Baseball games will soon arrive on virtual-reality headsets. Video in the new At Bat VR app won’t be in VR. Rather, the app places you behind home plate and shows you graphical depictions of each pitch, including a colored streak (red for strikes and green for balls) tracing the ball’s trajectory. The data come from sensors Major League Baseball already has installed in all of its stadiums. The app also lets you hover over icons to see the speed and type of each pitch, as well as which parts of a strike zone is strong or weak for a particular batter. Traditional TV coverage of the games will appear on a virtual screen in front of you, alongside play-by-play information and individual player stats. It’s more information that casual baseball…

California-based company Rocket Lab said Thursday it had launched a test rocket into space from its New Zealand launch pad, although the rocket didn’t reach orbit as hoped. The company said its Electron rocket lifted off at 4:20 p.m. Thursday and reached space three minutes later. “It was a fantastic flight and we are really, really happy with the performance of the vehicle,” said company founder Peter Beck. Beck, a New Zealander, said the early stages of the mission went to plan, right up to the final separation. He said his team would be working through terabytes of data over the coming weeks to find out why the rocket didn’t reach orbit. He said a second test rocket has been built but it would take the team at least a…

Spacewalking astronauts completed urgent repairs at the International Space Station on Tuesday, replacing equipment that failed three days earlier and restoring a backup for a vital data-relay system. It took commander Peggy Whitson much longer than expected to install the spare unit. Success finally came after her spacewalking partner, Jack Fischer, blasted the area with nitrogen gas to clear away flecks of metal. Mission Control noted that the failure occurred only 2 days, 21 hours, 38 minutes earlier, “and we are already back in a good position, so excellent work. “ Testing confirmed the new unit worked, restoring full redundancy to the system that operates the space station’s solar panels, radiators and robotic equipment. “Very good. We are really happy about that,” Whitson said. Tuesday’s spacewalk lasted less than three…

Google already monitors online shopping - and now it’s keeping an eye on physical stores to try to sell more digital advertising. The internet company said that a new tool will track how much money people spend in merchants’ brick-and-mortar stores after clicking on their digital ads. The analysis will be done by matching the combined ad clicks of people who are logged into Google services with their collective purchases on credit and debit cards. Google says it won’t be able to examine the specific items purchased or how much a specific individual spent. But even aggregated data can sometimes be converted back to data that can identify individuals, said Larry Ponemon, chairman of the Ponemon Institute privacy research firm. MINING CREDIT-CARD DATA Google says it has access to roughly…

No place on Earth is more devoted to the “auteur” filmmaker than the Cannes Film Festival. Directors are hailed with minutes-long standing ovations, while movie stars parade a gauntlet of flashbulbs on the red carpet. But as much as attention is lavished on the so-called “above-the-line” talent, the little guys - the below-the-line contributors on a film - are usually either unseen or totally absent. Yet one film in Cannes, “Filmworker,” pays tribute to one of the hardest-working, least well-known collaborators to perhaps cinema’s greatest visionary. The film, directed by Tony Zierra, is about Leon Vitali, the longtime right-hand man to Stanley Kubrick. Despite his uncommon proximity to Kubrick and his significant contributions to the director’s big-screen artistry, Vitali was - until “Filmworker” premiered - an almost entirely unsung figure…

A computer defeated China’s top player of the ancient board game go, earning praise that it might have finally surpassed human abilities in one of the last games machines have yet to dominate. Google’s AlphaGo won the first of three planned games this week against Ke Jie, a 19-year-old prodigy, in this town west of Shanghai. The computer will also face other top-ranked Chinese players during the five-day event. AlphaGo beat Ke by a half-point, “the closest margin possible,” according to Demis Hassabis, founder of DeepMind, the Google-owned company in London that developed AlphaGo. AlphaGo has improved markedly since it defeated South Korea’s top competitor last year and is a “completely different player,” Ke told reporters. “For the first time, AlphaGo was quite human-like,” Ke said. “In the past it…

Logan In the near future, a weary Logan spends his time caring for Professor X in a hide out on the Mexican border, but his attempts at hiding from his legacy are up-ended when a young mutant being pursued by dark forces arrives. FIVE FACTS: 1. This film is the widest-opening R-rated release in cinema history, opening at 4,071 theaters in the United States. 2. Hugh Jackman said this was the hardest Wolverine movie for which he has ever trained. 3. In the final scene, you can see the mutant Bobby carrying an original Wolverine action figure. 4. This is the second longest X-Men movie, behind X-Men: Apocalypse (2016). 5. The title of the film is a reference to Mark Millar’s graphic novel Old Man Logan and was deliberately chosen…

Without the shocking video, it’s unlikely that the world would have learned or cared about the violent manhandling of a 69-year-old man on a plane last month. The outrage on social media, the mea culpa by an airline CEO, the promise to treat customers better - none of it would have happened. The passengers who shot those videos on a United Express plane in Chicago violated United’s policy on photography. By the letter of the airline’s law, they too could have been ordered off the plane. Under United’s policy, customers can take pictures or videos with small cameras or cellphones “provided that the purpose is capturing personal events.” Filming or photographing other customers or airline employees without their consent is prohibited. American, Delta and Southwest have similar policies. Passengers are…

Workers this weekend finished installing a protective cover over a partially-collapsed tunnel that contained radioactive waste on the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, the U.S. Department of Energy said Monday. The tunnel that contained highly radioactive wastes left over from production of plutonium for nuclear weapons partially collapsed on May 9, prompting evacuation of nearby workers. The hole left by the partial collapse was filled with more than 50 truckloads of soil the next day. The Energy Department has said no workers were injured and no airborne radiation escaped into the environment as a result of the incident. The agency said the cover will provide additional protection while work continues to find a permanent fix. Crews from contractor CH2M HILL Plateau Remediation Company placed the cover over the tunnel and secured it…

China’s biggest online retailer, JD.com Inc., announced plans to develop drone aircraft capable of carrying a ton or more for long-distance deliveries. The company said it will test the drones on a network it is developing to cover the northern Chinese province of Shaanxi. It said they will carry consumer goods to remote areas and farm produce to cities. JD.com, headquartered in Beijing, says it made its first deliveries to customers using smaller drones in November. Other e-commerce brands including Amazon.com Inc. also are experimenting with drones for delivery. “We envision a network that will be able to efficiently transport goods between cities, and even between provinces, in the future,” the chief executive of JD’s logistics business group, Wang Zhenhui, said in a statement. JD.com operates its own nationwide network…

French researchers have released software tools that they claim can restore some of the computers locked up by a global cyberattack that held users’ files for ransom. The researchers said, however, that the tools are not perfect and work only if the computers infected with the WannaCry ransomware have not been rebooted after being hit. For that reason, the technique isn’t likely to help many people. In addition, companies needing to restore their operations right away likely would have turned to backups, if available, by now. The developments came Friday, the apparent deadline for owners of some infected machines to pay a ransom of up to $600 or lose their files forever. As of Friday, the three accounts known to collect ransom payments had received less than $100,000 worth of…

The same technology that keeps kids glued to their smart phones is being used by some schools as protection against sexual assaults . Using apps, victims and bystanders can alert school officials, police or parents to trouble. While the systems can be used by kids pranking each other, app developers and school officials say most claims end up being credible. Reporting happens as events unfold and administrators can respond immediately. The real challenge is money. Not all schools can afford the apps, some of which base their cost on the number of users or size of a student population. However, school insurance companies increasingly are picking up the tab, seeing the apps as a tool to mitigate risk. Experts also warn that these apps should never be considered the sole…

An appeals court struck down a Federal Aviation Administration rule that required owners of drones used for recreation to register their craft. The ruling was a victory for hobbyists and a setback for the FAA, which cited safety concerns as it tried to tighten regulation of the fast-growing army of drone operators. Some pilots of commercial airliners have reported close calls with drones flying near airports. About 760,000 hobbyists have registered more than 1.6 million drones since 2015, and sales have skyrocketed. The FAA estimates that hobbyists will buy 2.3 million drones this year and 13 million by the end of 2020. Commercial operators from photographers to oil pipeline and cellphone tower owners were forecast to buy another 10 million through 2020. The FAA decided in 2015 to require hobbyists…

A LOOK AHEAD TO THE iPHONE 8, 7S, AND 7S PLUS Samsung’s Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ smartphones were unveiled in March before their retail release the following month - and since these very promising handsets broke cover, a wide array of tech journalists and commentators have been salivating over the changes. The all-screen displays almost led BGR’s Zach Epstein to liken this move to the paradigm shift between his old Symbian handset and an iPhone, while TechRadar called the S8 “officially the best smartphone currently available.” But is it really? The answer is more complex than initial assessments of Samsung’s new devices might have led you to believe. In fact, as the weeks have passed and the dust has settled on the early hype, users have been uncovering more flaws with the…

On Broadway, there’s great financial news to sing about but a sour note amid the flush times: Box offices are enjoying the highest grossing season in history but attendance has dipped after four consecutive seasons of gains. The Broadway League, the national trade association for the Broadway industry, said Tuesday that box offices reported a record total gross of $1.45 billion for the season that began May 23, 2016, and ended Sunday- up 5.5 percent from the $1.37 billion earned the previous season. The trade association for theater owners, operators and producers said attendance was up to 13.27 million ticket buyers, down 0.4 percent from the 13.32 million the season before and despite more offerings. The new numbers come during a season that saw a new theater - the Hudson…

Back To Us Rascal Flatts The best-selling country vocal group of the decade, Rascal Flatts’ 10th studio album Back to Us helps them to maintain their reputation for infectious anthems. The 10-track album kicks off with the lead single “Yours If You Want it”, recalling early sounds with a sing-along chorus in comparison to the piano-driven “I Know You Won’t”, which highlights LeVox’s emotive vocals. FIVE FACTS: 1. The band have had 12 number one singles, with their cover of Marcus Hummon’s “Bless the Broken Road” lasting five weeks at the top. 2. Gary LeVox and Jay DeMarcus are second cousins, and the latter is brother-in-law to country singer James Otto. 3. While they are considered a country band, a lot of their music has been played on various radio…

Tennis star Serena Williams has 39 Grand Slam titles, four Olympic medals, major endorsement deals and her own line of clothing and accessories. Now she is embarking on a new mission: She says she wants to help tech companies diversify their workforces and solve one of the industry’s most vexing problems. Williams, 35, will get her chance as she joins a Silicon Valley boardroom. Online poll-taking service SurveyMonkey announced Williams’ appointment to its board on Wednesday, along with Intuit CEO Brad Smith. “I feel like diversity is something I speak to,” Williams said in an interview with The Associated Press. “Change is always happening; change is always building. What is important to me is to be at the forefront of the change and to make it easier for the next…

CEO of Apple, Tim Cook, has been spotted wearing a prototype glucose monitor that was connected to his Apple Watch. The report comes CNBC with its sources stating that Cook was wearing the device at Apple’s campus in Cupertino, California. Whilst details are currently scarce, it follows previous reports that indicate that Apple have a team in Palo Alto working on technology to benefit people with diabetes through noninvasive continuous glucose monitors (CGMs). In February, Cook had met with students at Glasgow University, stating: “I’ve been wearing a continuous glucose monitor for a few weeks, I just took it off before coming on this trip.” CGMs are becoming more commonly used by people with type 1 diabetes and they are also attracting interest from people with type 2 diabetes. They…

“Apollo 8: The Thrilling Story of the First Mission to the Moon” (Henry Holt), by Jeffrey Kluger In “Apollo 8: The Thrilling Story of the First Mission to the Moon,” author Jeffrey Kluger takes readers inside the capsule of the Apollo 8 mission, the first one to journey to the moon and back, which paved the way for the Apollo 11 mission less than seven months later. Kluger takes a fly-on-the-wall approach to the beginning of the American space race, showcasing the various men who would become astronauts. With the end of the 1960s rapidly approaching, the deadline unveiled by President John F. Kennedy to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade seemed a lost cause. Bold and dangerous decisions had to be made. Apollo…

Sony’s leader is promising a comeback for the Japanese electronics and entertainment company having its best profitability in two decades. Chief Executive Kazuo Hirai outlined the strategy for the company this week at its Tokyo headquarters. He stressed the profitability in sprawling Sony Corp., including its lucrative PlayStation video-game business, which just came out with a popular virtual-reality headset. Hira told reporters another important area is Sony’s TV sector, which has been in the black for the last few years, after losing money for a decade. But he said he cannot give away details of products in the works such as those using artificial intelligence. He also said profits will be improved in smartphones and movies.…

A couple of things about the WannaCry cyberattack are certain. It was the biggest in history and it’s a scary preview of things to come - we’re all going to have to get used to hearing the word “ransomware.”But one thing is a lot less clear: whether North Korea had anything to do with it. Despite bits and pieces of evidence that suggest a possible North Korea link, experts warn there is nothing conclusive yet - and a lot of reasons to be dubious. Why, for example, would Pyongyang carry out a big hack that hurt its two closest strategic partners more than anyone else? And for what appears to be a pretty measly amount of loot - as of Friday the grand total of ransom that had been paid…