Innholdsfortegnelse for #504 i Techlife News

Microsoft has unveiled the next generation of its Windows software, called Windows 11, that has a new Start Menu and other features. The newest version of Microsoft’s flagship operating system announced Thursday will be a successor to today’s Windows 10, which the company introduced in 2015. Windows 11 is expected to become available later this year on new computers and other devices and as a free update for those with Windows 10. Microsoft’s virtual announcement event was affected by technical difficulties, forcing the company to recommend some viewers watch it on Twitter instead. When it launched Windows 10 six years ago, Microsoft was hoping that the new operating system would help it rebuild loyalty among users who were increasingly relying on tablets, smartphones and other devices. Windows has been a…

Warren Buffett resigned this week as trustee of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which says it will announce plans in July to answer questions raised about its leadership structure as it deals with the divorce of its two founders. The announcement from Buffett comes weeks after Bill and Melinda Gates revealed that they were divorcing after 27 years of marriage but would continue to jointly run one of the largest charitable foundations in the world. Buffett was one of three members of the foundation’s board — the other two are Bill and Melinda Gates. “For years I have been a trustee – an inactive trustee at that – of only one recipient of my funds, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMG). I am now resigning from that post,…

Chinese-made materials used in solar panels will be barred from the U.S. market as part of a broader effort to halt commerce tied to China’s repressive campaign against Uyghurs and other minorities, the Biden administration said Thursday. U.S. Customs and Border Protection will immediately halt shipments from the Hoshine Silicon Industry Co. Ltd. and its subsidiaries under a law that bans the import of goods produced with forced labor. In addition, the Commerce Department will add six Chinese entities involved in the production of raw materials and components for the solar industry to a blacklist barring them from access to the American market, the administration said. These latest moves could make it harder for the U.S. to meet renewable energy goals aimed at addressing climate change because about 45% of…

GameStop raised more than $1 billion in its latest stock sale, capitalizing on a newly arrived and fervent army of online investors. The video game retailer has taken center stage among a handful of companies that have come to be known this year as meme stocks. The phenomenon has pitted smaller investors who snap up shares of beleaguered companies, against large, institutional investors who have shorted shares of those companies, or bet that shares in those companies will fall. So far, it’s the smaller investors that are taking home big gains, though certainly larger and more sophisticated investors have since jumped aboard for the ride. Shares of GameStop Corp., based in Grapevine, Texas, just outside of Dallas, are up more than 1,000% this year. Another meme stock, the movie chain…

When U.S. law enforcement officials need to cast a wide net for information, they’re increasingly turning to the vast digital ponds of personal data created by Big Tech companies via the devices and online services that have hooked billions of people around the world. Data compiled by four of the biggest tech companies shows that law enforcement requests for user information — phone calls, emails, texts, photos, shopping histories, driving routes and more — have more than tripled in the U.S. since 2015. Police are also increasingly savvy about covering their tracks so as not to alert suspects of their interest. That’s the backdrop for recent revelations that the Trump-era U.S. Justice Department sought data from Apple, Microsoft and Google about members of Congress, their aides and news reporters in…

A brisk and bright sun-dappled fable of above-ground adventure and below-the-surface identity, Enrico Casarosa’s “Luca” — a summery, shimmering fish-out-of-water fairy tale — is one of Pixar’s most pure and condensed enchantments. Pixar has plunged into the sea before, of course, in the aquatic “Finding Nemo” and “Finding Dory.” Lushly detailed waters have been sprinkled through many of the studio’s films, from the rushing river of “The Good Dinosaur” to the frothy seaside surf of “Piper.” One personal favorite: how, after the frantic Paris chase in “Ratatouille,” the diminutive Chef Skinner bobs furiously in the Seine. But in“Luca,”we’re in the ocean to look longingly upon another world, which happens to be our own. Luca Paguro (Jacob Tremblay) is a 13-year-old sea monster who lives off the coast of the Italian…

Remember that longing you felt after an episode of “Sex and the City” to shop at the characters’ favorite New York haunts and drink cosmopolitans at the same bars? Or that sense of wanderlust for the seaside cliffs of Ireland after watching “Game of Thrones?” Hollywood’s flattering spotlight has put small towns on the map, like Wilmington, North Carolina, from “Dawson’s Creek” and the woods of Senoia, Georgia, from “The Walking Dead.” And that’s exactly what travel marketers in St. Petersburg and Clearwater, Florida, were hoping to capitalize on when they commissioned an original, scripted TV series, seeking to draw quarantine-weary tourists to the area’s sugar sand beaches. “Life’s Rewards” aired on Amazon Prime last month. The eight-episode show is based on a charming yet cavalier wealth manager who loses…

Ever since a track coach named Bill Bowerman tinkered with the idea of pouring rubber into his waffle iron to concoct a better shoe sole for running, Nike and the sport of track and field have become inseparably intertwined. The results of much of that interconnectedness is on full display in the college town of Eugene — which is where Nike was founded and underwrites virtually every facet of sporting life at the University of Oregon. This week, the university is hosting the track and field Olympic trials. Next year, the sport’s world championships — the biggest event in track this side of the Olympics — take the stage. Though frequently scrutinized the way any market leader is, Nike’s command of this sport has been tested over the past few…

European Union regulators have launched a fresh antitrust investigation of Google, this time over whether the U.S. tech giant is stifling competition in digital advertising technology. The European Commission said this week that it has opened a formal investigation into whether Google violated the bloc’s competition rules by favoring its own online display advertising technology services at the expense of rival publishers, advertisers and advertising technology services. The investigation underscores European concerns about Google’s dominance in the online advertising industry and whether it’s exploiting its data advantage to cement its position in the display ad market, which the EU Commission estimates is worth 20 billion euros ($24 billion) annually. This month, France’s antitrust authority fined Google more than 220 million euros for abusing its dominance in online ads while in…

One of Rembrandt van Rijn’s biggest paintings just got a bit bigger. A marriage of art and artificial intelligence has enabled Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum to recreate parts of the iconic “Night Watch” painting that were snipped off 70 years after Rembrandt finished it. The printed strips now hang flush to the edges of the 1642 painting in the museum’s Honor Gallery. Their addition restores to the work the off-center focal point that that rebellious Golden Age master Rembrandt originally intended. “It can breathe now,” museum director Taco Dibbits told The Associated Press on Wednesday. The crowded painting’s two main characters, Captain Frans Banninck Cocq and Lieutenant Willem van Ruytenburch, are central in the chopped down painting. With the new digital additions — particularly a strip on the left of the painting…

When it was new, the window sticker price on a typical 2019 Toyota Tacoma SR double cab pickup was just under $29,000. Two years later, dealers are paying almost $1,000 more than that to buy the same vehicle, even though it’s used. Then they’re selling it to consumers for more than $33,000. Welcome to the wacky world of U.S. car and truck sales, where the pandemic and a global shortage of computer chips have pushed prices to record levels. In the past year, used vehicle prices on average have climbed 30%, according to Black Book, which tracks car and truck data. That’s created many crazy situations where high-demand vehicles are selling for more than they did when they were new, said Alex Yurchenko, the company’s senior vice president of data…

A Dutch consumer group is launching a 1.5 billion euro ($1.8 billion) claim against TikTok over what it alleges is unlawful harvesting of personal data from users of the popular video sharing platform. The Consumentenbond and a foundation called Take Back Your Privacy demanded Thursday that TikTok pay damages to 1.2 million to 1.6 million Dutch children who use the app. “The conduct of TikTok is pure exploitation,” Consumentenbond director Sandra Molenaar said in a statement. “The company earns hundreds of millions per year on the backs of children. And that while privacy law prescribes that children should receive additional protection.” TikTok is hugely popular with teenagers and young adults, who use it to post and watch short-form videos. The consumer organization and privacy foundation are demanding that TikTok pay…

Tesla might be the first company that springs to mind when you’re in the market for a new electric vehicle, but California-based startup Lucid should not be underestimated. The firm unveiled its breathtaking Lucid Air vehicle last year, offering up to 1065bhp and a claimed maximum range of 517 miles, and last month teased its proprietary operating system that will connect drivers across the United States and around the world. The future is coming. THE WORLD’S MOST AERODYNAMIC LUXURY CAR Lucid’s debut model, Air, has been described by its engineers as the world’s most “aerodynamic luxury car,” with a drag coefficient of just 0.21; that’s 0.01 less than the new Mercedes-Benz S-Class to give you some perspective. The model offers an unrestricted top speed of more than 230 miles per…

A House panel pushed ahead Wednesday with ambitious legislation that could curb the market power of tech giants Facebook, Google, Amazon and Apple and force them to sever their dominant platforms from their other lines of business. Conservative Republican lawmakers haggled over legislative language and pushed concerns of perceived anti-conservative bias in online platforms but couldn’t halt the bipartisan momentum behind the package. The drafting session and votes by the House Judiciary Committee are initial steps in what promises to be a strenuous slog through Congress. Many Republican lawmakers denounce the market dominance of Big Tech but don’t support a wholesale revamp of the antitrust laws. The Democratic-majority committee made quick work of arguably the least controversial bills in the package, which were approved over Republican objections. A measure that…

Toward the end of “The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard,” there’s a scene where Ryan Reynolds is repeatedly smashing a man’s head into a jukebox aboard a yacht, as sometimes happens. Each time the bloodied head goes in the machine, it triggers a new song. Until it lands on “The Sign” by Ace of Base. “You’re lucky,” Reynolds says to his unconscious rival before walking away to commit more mayhem. “I love this song.” That single scene beautifully captures the essence of the sequel to 2017’s “The Hitman’s Bodyguard” — overly violent, disarmingly cute and overly self-referencing. Fans of the original will get the in-joke about “The Sign” but the sequel itself will not likely make new fans. It suffers from what many sophomore films fall prey to: Same basic idea, but…

Feeling like you are being watched? It could be from a lot farther away than you think. Astronomers took a technique used to look for life on other planets and flipped it around — so instead of looking to see what’s out there, they tried to see what places could see us. There’s a lot. Astronomers calculated that 1,715 stars in our galactic neighborhood — and hundreds of probable Earth-like planets circling those stars — have had an unobstructed view of Earth during human civilization, according to a study in the journal Nature. “When I look up at the sky, it looks a little bit friendlier because it’s like, maybe somebody is waving,” said study lead author Lisa Kaltenegger, director of the Carl Sagan Institute at Cornell University. Even though…

COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. have dipped below 300 a day for the first time since the early days of the disaster in March 2020, while the drive to put shots in arms hit another encouraging milestone this week: 150 million Americans fully vaccinated. The coronavirus was the third leading cause of death in the U.S. in 2020, behind heart disease and cancer, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But now, as the outbreak loosens its grip, it has fallen down the list of the biggest killers. CDC data suggests that more Americans are dying every day from accidents, chronic lower respiratory diseases, strokes or Alzheimer’s disease than from COVID-19. The U.S. death toll stands at more than 600,000, while the worldwide count is close to 3.9…

China’s biggest banks promised this week to refuse to help customers trade Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies after the central bank said executives were told to step up enforcement of a government ban. Regulators appear to worry that despite the 2013 ban on Chinese banks and other institutions handling cryptocurrencies, the state-run financial system might be indirectly exposed to risks. Beijing also worries users might evade efforts to monitor and control the financial system. The four major state-owned commercial banks and payment service Alipay promised to step up monitoring of customers and block use of their accounts to buy or trade crypto-currencies. “Customers are asked to be more aware of risks, safeguard bank accounts and not to use virtual currency-related transactions,” China Construction Bank Ltd. said on its website. Similar promises…

Digital media company BuzzFeed is setting its sights on growth. It plans to become a publicly traded company with an implied value of $1.5 billion through a merger with a special purpose acquisition company. BuzzFeed hopes the move will put it in a better position to capture lucrative digital ad dollars against much bigger rivals like Google, Facebook and Amazon. The company, founded by Jonah Peretti in 2006 and initially known for listicles and online quizzes, has established itself as a serious contender in the news business, this year winning a Pulitzer for international reporting. Its other brands include Tasty, the world’s largest social food network. It has been buying up competitors, including HuffPost, the media outlet founded in 2005 as The Huffington Post, from Verizon Media in November. BuzzFeed…

Amazon has announced plans to build a solar farm in Mississippi and in at least 10 other states, including Arkansas and Pennsylvania. The project is part of a company launch of new renewable energy projects throughout the U.S., Canada, Finland, and Spain, according to a news release. Amazon officials say they plan to decarbonize business operations and reach net-zero carbon by 2040. The 175-megawatt solar farm will be located in Scott County, according to a map of planned renewable energy projects released by Amazon. It’s projected to come online in 2024. The project is just the latest development in Amazon’s growing presence in Mississippi. Amazon announced in November that it was opening a third “fulfillment center” for sorting and processing customer orders. Its set to be the first to feature…

As ransomware attacks surge, the FBI is doubling down on its guidance to affected businesses: Don’t pay the cybercriminals. But the U.S. government also offers a little-noticed incentive for those who do pay: The ransoms may be tax deductible. The IRS offers no formal guidance on ransomware payments, but multiple tax experts interviewed said deductions are usually allowed under law and established guidance. It’s a “silver lining” to ransomware victims, as some tax lawyers and accountants put it. But those looking to discourage payments are less sanguine. They fear the deduction is a potentially problematic incentive that could entice businesses to pay ransoms against the advice of law enforcement. At a minimum, they say, the deductibility sends a discordant message to businesses under duress. “It seems a little incongruous to…

It took a few minutes to get used to. The classroom full of city of Gillette workers, not students, sat in desks facing the front of the Gillette College Technical Education Center classroom, but they also were faced in all different directions, looking almost like landlocked scuba divers. Unable to see each other but immersed in virtual reality, they smiled, spun and flailed their arms. Although they work in various city departments, they were virtually taken to a coal mine by the black virtual reality headsets strapped to their heads. VR goggles protruded from their faces but inside their minds, they experienced what it’s like to stand in a coal mine from the seat of a classroom chair, the Gillette News Record reports. The blind spot training program that Gillette…

Facebook is launching podcasts and live audio streams in the U.S. this week to keep users engaged on its platform and to compete with emerging rivals. Facebook says it is allowing public figures with verified accounts to start live audio rooms and invite anyone else to speak. A handful of podcasts will be available to people in the U.S. at first and the company plans to add more down the line. CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who has appeared on the video streaming app Clubhouse in the past, hosted his own live audio room on his Facebook page last week. “Live Audio Rooms and podcasts rolling out in the US is just the beginning of our audio journey,” wrote Fidji Simo, head of the Facebook app, in a blog post. “Looking ahead,…

Steven Spielberg, a filmmaker synonymous with big-screen enchantment, has set a new deal with Netflix in which his production company, Amblin Partners, will make multiple feature films per year for the streaming giant. The partnership, one long courted by Ted Sarandos, Netflix chief content officer, is a major get for the company that, amid increasing competition, brings perhaps the most beloved film director more officially into the streaming fold. The deal announced this week doesn’t specifically include any movies to be directed by Spielberg. This December, he will release “West Side Story” theatrically with Disney’s 20th Century Studios. Amblin has a separate deal with Universal Pictures for theatrical releases. “At Amblin, storytelling will forever be at the center of everything we do, and from the minute Ted and I started…

How do astronauts do laundry in space? They don’t. They wear their underwear, gym clothes and everything else until they can’t take the filth and stink anymore, then junk them. NASA wants to change that — if not at the International Space Station, then the moon and Mars — and stop throwing away tons of dirty clothes every year, stuffing t hem in the trash to burn up in the atmosphere aboard discarded cargo ships. So it’s teamed up with Procter & Gamble Co. to figure out how best to clean astronauts’ clothes in space so they can be reused for months or even years, just like on Earth. The Cincinnati company announced this week that it will send a pair of Tide detergent and stain removal experiments to the…

Air travel can be difficult in the best of times, with cramped planes, screaming babies, flight delays and short tempers. Throw in a pandemic, and the anxiety level can rise quickly. That has led to confrontations with flight attendants and other unruly behavior, including occasional fights that get captured and replayed endlessly on social media. Airlines have reported about 3,000 cases of disruptive passengers since Jan. 1, according to a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration, which began tracking it this year. About 2,300 of those incidents involved passengers who refused to obey the federal requirement to wear a face mask. Over the past decade, the FAA investigated about 140 cases a year for possible enforcement actions such as fines. This year, it was nearly 400 by late May. Things…

A sharply limited number of fans will be allowed to attend the Tokyo Olympics, organizers announced as they tried to save some of the spirit of the Games where even cheering has been banned. Organizers set a limit of 50% capacity — up to a maximum of 10,000 fans, all of whom must be Japanese residents — for each Olympic venue, regardless of whether it is indoors or outdoors. Officials said that if coronavirus cases rise again the rules could be changed and fans could still be barred all together. Spectators from abroad were banned several months ago, and now some local fans who have tickets will be forced to give them up. The decision comes as opposition among Japanese to holding the Games in July remains high, though may…