Innholdsfortegnelse for #378 i Techlife News

A fleet of high-tech robots is now deployed at a northern Virginia university to serve the noble purpose of delivering pizza, doughnuts and coffee on demand to students who summon them. Starship Technologies announced this week that its delivery robots are now in use at George Mason University in Fairfax. The company’s partnership with Sodexo, which holds a catering contract at George Mason, means that students can get deliveries from Blaze Pizza, Starbucks and Dunkin for a $1.99 fee. More vendors are expected to join the program later. The six-wheeled robots, shaped like a cooler, can climb curbs and hold up to 20 pounds of cargo. Starship says its rollout of more than 25 robots makes it the largest implementation of autonomous robot food-delivery services on a college campus.…

A tiny fraction of Twitter users spread the vast majority of fake news in 2016, with conservatives and older people sharing misinformation more, a new study finds. Scientists examined more than 16,000 U.S. Twitter accounts and found that 16 of them — less than one-tenth of 1 percent — tweeted out nearly 80 percent of the misinformation masquerading as news, according to a study Thursday in the journal Science . About 99 percent of the Twitter users spread virtually no fake information in the most heated part of the election year, said study co-author David Lazer, a Northeastern University political and computer science professor. Spreading fake information “is taking place in a very seamy, but small, corner of Twitter,” Lazer said. Lazer said misinformation “super sharers” flood Twitter: an average…

A charity founded by Britain’s Prince Charles said Thursday it’s not accepting any more donations from Huawei, the latest setback for the Chinese telecom giant as it battles allegations it’s a cybersecurity risk. Huawei, the world’s biggest producer of telecom network gear, is facing increasing scrutiny in Europe over concerns about its technology. Huawei has been expected to play a key role in the development of next-generation mobile networks in Europe, the company’s biggest market outside China, but some countries are starting to rethink its involvement. “At present, we are not accepting new donations from Huawei in light of public concerns,” the Prince’s Trust said in a statement. The trust, which was established in 1976 to help disadvantaged young people, said any future donations will be reviewed by its ethical…

An anonymous Wyoming resident has given more than $100,000 to Teton County Search and Rescue to help purchase a system to help find people lost or injured in remote areas with no cellphone service. The device, Lifeseeker, attaches to a helicopter or plane and allows rescuers to locate people where there is no cell signal as long as their cellphone is turned on, the Jackson Hole News and Guide reported last week. The device allows rescuers to locate any type of cellphone if the phone is turned on in a non-coverage or low-coverage area. It won’t work if a cellphone is on “airplane mode.”The phone has to be on and attempting to reach a cell tower. Lifeseeker, which was developed by Spain-based Centum Research and Technology, has never been used…

A Duke University team expects to have a product available for election year that will allow television networks to offer real-time fact checks onscreen when a politician makes a questionable claim during a speech or debate. The mystery is whether any network will choose to use it. The response to President Donald Trump’s speech on border security illustrated how fact-checking is likely to be an issue over the next two years. Networks briefly considered not airing Trump live and several analysts contested some of his statements afterward, but nobody questioned him while he was speaking. Duke already offers an app, developed by professor and Politifact founder Bill Adair, that directs users to online fact checks during political events. A similar product has been tested for television, but is still not…

Toyota Motor Corp. and Panasonic Corp. are setting up a joint venture to research, manufacture and sell batteries for ecological autos, an increasingly lucrative sector amid concerns about global warming. The Japanese automaker and the Japanese electronics maker said in a joint statement this week that Toyota will take a 51 percent stake and Panasonic 49 percent in the joint venture, which is to be running by the end of 2020. The companies have been studying working together on batteries since 2017. They did not say how much would be invested in the joint venture. Panasonic will transfer equipment, assets and workers from its plants in Japan and China to the joint venture, which will employ 3,500 workers from both companies. Separately, Panasonic already has invested in a battery factory…

Foxconn Technology Group didn’t create enough Wisconsin jobs in 2018 to immediately claim state tax credits. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports the company finished 2018 with 178 full-time employees, 82 short of the minimum required to claim job-creation tax credits. Foxconn can still earn credit for 2018 job creation by making up the shortfall in future years. The company eventually could earn $1.5 billion in credits as part of a $4 billion total public incentives package. Foxconn is building a flat-screen plant in Mount Pleasant that it says could create 13,000 jobs. The company said in a letter to state economic development officials that it remains committed to those jobs but has adjusted recruiting and hiring timelines so it can adjust to global economic conditions. The letter didn’t elaborate.…

Twenty-three years after Fox’s glowing puck made its debut, the NHL’s next big technological advancement will be on display this weekend during All-Star festivities. NBC will showcase puck and player tracking as part of its broadcast of the skills competition Friday night and then as the centerpiece of a digital-only broadcast of the All-Star 3-on-3 tournament Saturday night. It’ll be the first chance for American hockey fans to get an up-close look at the system that could be in place as soon as next season. With each player and puck fitted with a microchip, the amount of available information could be overwhelming. Look for everything from NASCAR-like bubbles over players’ heads to skating and shot speed to ice time and even a small trail behind the puck as NBC takes…

Chinese authorities appear to have confirmed a scientist’s unpublished claim that he helped make the world’s first gene-edited babies and that a second pregnancy is underway, and say he could face consequences for his work. China’s official Xinhua News Agency said Monday that investigators in Guangdong province determined that the scientist, He Jiankui (HUH JEEN-qway), evaded supervision of his work and violated research norms because he wanted to be famous. The report said He acted alone and will be punished for any violations of the law, although it didn’t say which regulations he may have broken. The scientist stunned the world in November by claiming that he had altered the DNA of twin girls at conception to try to help them resist infection with the AIDS virus. He’s work has…

People in Tonga could face several weeks without Facebook, YouTube and even some basic services like credit card transactions due to a fault in the undersea cable that connects the Pacific nation to the rest of the world. Something went wrong with the fiber-optic cable on Sunday night. Initially it wiped out access to the internet almost entirely, and meant people couldn’t even make international phone calls. A small internet company that uses satellites has stepped in and helped restore international calls and some other services the government considers vital. But people still typically can’t access social media sites such as Facebook and some businesses remain unable to process credit or debit cards. Pesi Fonua, publisher of news website Matangi Tonga, said Wednesday it remains hard to read emails or…

Robots aren’t replacing everyone, but a quarter of U.S. jobs will be severely disrupted as artificial intelligence accelerates the automation of existing work, according to a new Brookings Institution report. Thursday’s report from the Washington think tank says roughly 36 million Americans hold jobs with “high exposure” to automation — meaning at least 70 percent of their tasks could soon be performed by machines using current technology. Among those most likely to be affected are cooks, waiters and others in food services; short-haul truck drivers; and clerical office workers. “That population is going to need to upskill, reskill or change jobs fast,” said Mark Muro, a senior fellow at Brookings and lead author of the report. Muro said the timeline for the changes could be “a few years or it…

NASA’s Opportunity rover is silently marking the 15th anniversary of its touchdown on Mars. The spacecraft hasn’t been heard from since a global dust storm last June. The six wheeler — about the size of a golf cart — logged more than 28 miles (45 kilometers) on the red planet before falling silent. There was so much dust in the Martian atmosphere that sunlight could not reach Opportunity’s solar panels to generate power. Flight controllers are still sending commands to the rover in hopes of a response. But project manager John Callas says the longer the blackout lasts, the less likely contact will be made. He calls Thursday’s anniversary bittersweet. Opportunity landed on Mars on Jan. 24, 2004. It already had long outlived its design lifetime before contact was lost.…

Chinese internet users have lost access to Microsoft Corp.’s Bing search engine, setting off grumbling about the ruling Communist Party’s increasingly tight online censorship. Comments on social media Thursday accused regulators of choking off access to information. Others complained they were forced to use Chinese search engines they say deliver poor results. “Why can’t we choose what we want to use?” said a comment signed Aurelito on the Sina Weibo microblog service. Bing complied with government censorship rules by excluding foreign websites that are blocked by Chinese filters from search results. But President Xi Jinping’s government has steadily tightened control over online activity. Microsoft confirmed in a statement that Bing was inaccessible in China. It said the company is trying to “determine next steps” but gave no details. The agency…

As Microsoft changes its strategy and turns its attention to businesses and cloud computing, it has reported record growth and profits. Delve deeper into the giant’s checkered history, see how its cutting-edge hardware is causing Apple and Google to rethink their strategies, and explore what the future will bring for one of the world’s most iconic technology brands. ALL CHANGE AT MICROSOFT Over the past five years, Microsoft has gone through something of a revolution. Satya Nadella took over from Steve Ballmer as chief executive officer in 2014, at a time when the company was facing significant challenges. For the first time, Microsoft wasn’t a dominant player in the personal computing world, and whilst its market share remained strong, rivals Apple and Google were tightening their grip on customers and…

“Black Panther” broke through an Oscar category wall for superheroes. The Marvel blockbuster hit became the first comic book-based film to earn a best picture nomination from the Academy Awards. It was a major step for comic book movies, which had previously been shunned from film’s top honor. The most notable snub was 2008’s “The Dark Knight,” prompting the academy to expand the best picture category from five to up to 10 nominees. It took a decade, but “Black Panther” cracked the category after becoming a box-office hit domestically and a cultural phenomenon. The film earned $700 million domestically during its theatrical run. Overall, “Black Panther” was rewarded a total of seven nominations including Hannah Beachler and Jay Hart’s production design, Ruth E. Carter’s costume design and Kendrick Lamar and…

U.S. government regulators are accusing software maker Oracle of engaging in discriminatory practices that resulted in thousands of its women, black and Asian employees being underpaid by more than $400 million. The allegations emerged this week in a filing made in a two-year-old case that is being pursued by a part of the U.S. Labor Department that examines the pay practices of government contractors. The agency estimates Oracle has government contracts worth about $100 million annually. The filing cites evidence that Oracle underpaid women and ethnic minorities for similar work done by white men by as much 25 percent. The alleged practices affected more than 5,000 women, more than 11,000 Asians and fewer than 30 blacks from 2013 through 2016. Oracle declined to comment.…

American tech giant Google has opened a new office in Berlin that it says will give it the space to expand in the German capital. CEO Sundar Pichai said this week the space means Google could more than double the number of Berlin employees to 300. Google currently has 1,400 employees in Germany. Pichai says “the city has long been a capital of culture and media. Now it’s also home to a fast-growing startup scene and an engine for innovation.” Google has faced regulatory headwinds in Europe, and was fined 50 million euros ($57 million) in France for alleged violations of European data privacy rules. Google Central Europe vice president Philipp Justus didn’t directly address the fine, but said Google’s committed to transparency and clarity on what data is collected…

The ArianeGroup wants to send a scientific mission to the moon before 2025. Nearly 50 years after Neil Armstrong walked on the Earth’s satellite, the Paris-based company said this week it has signed a one-year contract with the European Space agency to study the possibility of preparing a mission, with the aim of mining regolith. The company says “regolith is an ore from which it is possible to extract water and oxygen, thus enabling an independent human presence on the Moon to be envisaged, capable of producing the fuel needed for more distant exploratory missions.” ArianeGroup says the mission would not involve sending men back to the moon.…

Oxford University says it is suspending research grants and funding donations from Huawei amid growing security concerns about the Chinese telecom giant. It’s another setback for Huawei’s image in Europe, an important market for the company, which has been effectively blocked in the U.S. over concerns its technology poses a cybersecurity risk. It’s now facing increasing scrutiny in Europe, where it is expected it to play a major role in building new fifth-generation mobile networks. The university decided on Jan. 8 that “it will not pursue new funding opportunities” with Huawei or related companies, it said in a statement. The decision, which applies to both funding of research contracts and philanthropic donations, was made “in the light of public concerns raised in recent months” surrounding the company’s U.K. partnerships. Two…

Digital media company BuzzFeed is cutting 15 percent of its jobs, or about 200 people, to trim costs and become profitable. BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti wrote employees Wednesday that the layoffs will help BuzzFeed avoid having to raise money from investors again. The privately held company has not been profitable for several years. It has raised hundreds of millions from such investors as Comcast’s NBCUniversal. The New York company is best known for its viral posts and quizzes and has a well-regarded news division. Many digital media companies have cut jobs or sold off in recent years as Facebook and Google gobble up the bulk of digital advertising dollars. Verizon also said Wednesday that it is cutting about 800 jobs in its media division, which includes Yahoo and HuffPost.…

Astronomers managed to capture the moment of an impact during this week’s eclipsed moon. Spanish astrophysicist Jose Maria Madiedo of the University of Huelva said Wednesday it appears a rock from a comet slammed into the moon during the total lunar eclipse late Sunday and early Monday. The strike was seen by telescopes in Spain and elsewhere as a bright flash. Madiedo said it’s the first impact flash ever seen during a lunar eclipse, although such crater-forming impacts are common. The object hit at an estimated 10 miles (17 kilometers) per second, and was 22 pounds (10 kilograms) and 12 inches (30 centimeters) across, according to Madiedo. Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles also recorded the impact during its livestream of the eclipse. A second flash was seen a minute after…

A POTENTIALLY DIFFICULT BALANCE TO STRIKE There have been countless Hollywood tales concerned with humankind’s ongoing struggle to hold back the growth of technology over the years. From the Matrix trilogy released either side of the Millennium, to the more recent Her, the question embedded right at the core of each new tale is the same. Do we control technology, or does it control us? Certainly, on this side of theater screens, the question is now more relevant than ever . The ubiquity of digital technologies in modern life would appear as dark and dystopian as many fictional visions of the 21st century, if it was presented as a possibility only several decades ago. In fact, it would probably be quickly identified that we appeared distinctly shackled; constantly engaged with…

Last July, in Frisco, Texas, Gerald Sartin realized the problem wasn’t limited to Greenwood. Sartin, the director of Piedmont Tech’s automotive technology program, had gone to an annual conference organized by the National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence. Greenwood’s auto shop owners are having a hard time finding qualified technicians. At the conference, some statistics were floated that brought home the magnitude of the problem. The average technician is 50 years old, Sartin heard. A mere 3 percent of the nation’s technicians are between the ages of 18 and 24. “Finding a qualified candidate, this has been an ongoing issue,” said Allen Rains, general manager of Lakelands Tire and Auto at Beaudrot Road. “The last six or seven (years) have been real difficult.” The problem is two-fold, according to Sartin…

On the same day Netflix scored its first best picture nomination from the Oscars, the steaming company is also joining the lobbying group the Motion Picture Association of America. The MPAA announced Tuesday that Netflix will join its ranks, becoming the first streaming service to do so. The only other members of the MPAA are the six major studios. One of the MPAA’s chief goals is to combat piracy, which is a concern for Netflix as it continues to expand its footprint overseas. Netflix, though, doesn’t use the MPAA’s ratings system to stamp its films PG-13 or R, for example. The MPAA is largely uninvolved in theatrical window debates, an ongoing dispute that has put Netflix at odds with theater owners. The trade group is set to lose one member…

Ride hailing firm Uber said it is raising the minimum age of its drivers in the Netherlands and taking other measures to increase road safety after a series of fatal accidents involving Uber drivers. The general manager of Uber Nederland, Thijs Emondts, said in a statement posted on the company’s website that it is lifting the minimum age from 18 to 21 years for drivers who use its app to connect with passengers. Uber also will insist that drivers have at least one year’s driving experience and will develop a mandatory traffic safety training course for all drivers under the age of 25. Rob Stomphorst, a spokesman for road safety organization Safe Traffic the Netherlands, says four people died in recent weeks in crashes involving Dutch Uber cars. He says…

Google’s self-driving car spinoff Waymo said it will bring a factory to Michigan, creating up to 400 jobs at what it describes as the world’s first plant “100 percent” dedicated to the mass production of autonomous vehicles. The company plans to spend about $13.6 million to retrofit a to-be-determined manufacturing facility in the Detroit area. In exchange, it will get a state incentive grant worth up to $8 million that was approved by the Michigan Strategic Fund Board. Waymo spokeswoman Alexis Georgeson said the company plans to hire up to 400 people to work at the factory, including engineers, operations experts and fleet coordinators. She said Waymo is looking for a site and hopes to open the plant in the middle of this year. A memo from the Michigan Economic…

A University of Missouri researcher is teaming up with scholars in Kansas and Georgia to develop drone technology to monitor and potentially predict the spread of wildfires. The $1.2 million research project that began last month aims to use unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones, to collect real-time data and send the information to firefighters to help contain wildfires, the Columbia Missourian reported. “Currently, the (nation’s) firefighting, or fire management system, is not very effective and efficient,” said University of Missouri professor Ming Xin. “One of the main issues is we cannot predict where fires spread.” Xin is working with University of Kansas professor Haiyang Chao and Georgia State University professor Xiaolin Hu in the wake of nearly 56,000 wildfires burning across the country last year, including California’s devastating Camp Fire…

Silicon Valley’s notorious nemesis, Margrethe Vestager, plans to end her term as the European Union’s antitrust enforcer this year with a bang, laying out a long-term plan to intensify scrutiny of the world’s big tech companies. As the EU’s competition commissioner, Vestager is arguably the world’s most important tech regulator. Since 2014, she has slapped Google with eye-popping multibillion-dollar antitrust penalties, ordered Apple and Amazon to pay back taxes and fined Facebook over its WhatsApp acquisition — flagship enforcement cases that have struck fear into Silicon Valley while drawing attention in Washington. Now, in her final year in office, the 50-year-old Danish politician is laying the groundwork for a new phase of regulation beyond the end of her term in October. She’s planning a report meant to guide EU competition…