Innholdsfortegnelse for #512 i Techlife News

After helping a new generation of investors get into stocks, Robinhood is increasingly doing the same for cryptocurrencies. More than $4 of every $10 that Robinhood Markets Inc. made in revenue during the spring came just from customers trading dogecoin, bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Robinhood also said that it lost $501.7 million, or $2.16 per share, compared with a profit of $57.6 million, or 9 cents per share, in last year’s second quarter. Most of the loss was due to accounting changes related to a fundraising round it undertook early this year. The loss was no surprise after the company had earlier given preliminary estimated results for the quarter. The company’s slowdown in revenue growth was also expected — it more than halved to 131% from 309% in the first…

Indiana health officials said they are notifying nearly 750,000 state residents that a cybersecurity company“improperly accessed”their personal data from the state’s online COVID-19 contact tracing survey — a description the company disputed as a“falsehood.” The Indiana Department of Health said the state was notified July 2 that a company gained “unauthorized access” to data, including names, addresses, dates of birth, emails, and data on gender, ethnicity and race. The nearly 750,000 people whose data was accessed represent all of the state’s participants in its online COVID-19 contact tracing survey, said agency spokeswoman Megan Wade-Taxter. state health department does not collect Social Security information for its COVID-19 contact tracing program, and no medical information was obtained. “We believe the risk to Hoosiers whose information was accessed is low,” Box said in…

Talk to a local beekeeper, and the potential consequences of the decline of the honeybee population are alarming, causing problems for pollination and sending ripple effects through the food supply chain and the entire ecosystem. Talk to a different beekeeper, and the deaths of honeybees may be overexaggerated, misleading the public about the supposed peril of billions of the hive-dwelling insects bred for crop pollination and honey production across the state and around the world. For all the beekeepers can agree on — that bees themselves perform the daily tasks of keeping the hive running, from attending to the queen to building the comb and defending the nest — they differ on their methods to circumvent decline and protect the insects supporting the state’s biodiversity and agricultural industries. People like…

Each morning at a transit facility in Canton, Ohio, more than a dozen buses pull up to a fueling station before fanning out to their routes in this city south of Cleveland. The buses — made by El Dorado National and owned by the Stark Area Regional Transit Authority — look like any others. Yet collectively, they reflect the cutting edge of a technology that could play a key role in producing cleaner inter-city transportation. In place of pollution-belching diesel fuel, one-fourth of the agency’s buses run on hydrogen. They emit nothing but harmless water vapor. Hydrogen, the most abundant element in the universe, is increasingly viewed, along with electric vehicles, as one way to slow the environmentally destructive impact of the planet’s 1.2 billion vehicles, most of which burn…

One of the challenges people have with electric vehicles is figuring out how much they cost to operate. The price of fully charging an electric vehicle’s battery can vary wildly depending on when and where you charge it. For the bigger picture, you should also include the amortized cost of buying and installing a home charging station and the rates your utility company charges. Here’s how to calculate what it will cost to charge your EV, as compiled by industry experts. IN: KILOWATT-HOURS PER 100 MILES, OUT: MPG When you’re shopping for a gasoline-powered car, you pay attention to how many miles per gallon it gets. For plug-in vehicles, the window sticker and the government’s fueleconomy.gov website will have a big EPAestimated mpg equivalent figure. But this isn’t a useful…

The names, Social Security numbers and information from driver’s licenses or other identification of just over 40 million people who applied for T-Mobile credit were exposed in a recent data breach, the company said. The same data for about 7.8 million current T-Mobile customers who pay monthly for phone service also appears to be compromised. No phone numbers, account numbers, PINs, passwords or financial information from the nearly 50 million records and accounts were compromised, it said. T-Mobile has been hit before by data theft but in the most recent case, “the sheer numbers far exceed the previous breaches,” said Gartner analyst Paul Furtado. T-Mobile, which is based in Bellevue, Washington, became one of the country’s largest cellphone service carriers, along with AT&T and Verizon, after buying rival Sprint. “Yes,…

The tag line for the latest biopic about an American icon reads: “Find out what it means.” Good luck with that. After more than two hours of the new messy Aretha Franklin biopic “Respect,” it’s not clear what it means, wasting a lot of superb screen talent in the slapdash process. This time it’s Jennifer Hudson portraying the Queen of Soul — a few months after Cynthia Erivo played Franklin in a National Geographic TV series — and you won’t be able to leave the theater without a lot of respect — yes, R-E-S-P-E-C-T — for Hudson’s abilities. But a meandering, unfocused look at the first three decades of Franklin’s life will also leave you saying a little prayer for the filmmakers. After all, if you come for the queen,…

Vaccine verification at major venues emerged Tuesday as a coronavirus fighting front in Nevada, with Las Vegas’ biggest trade conference following the NFL’s Las Vegas Raiders in announcing they’ll require attendees to prove they’re inoculated. The Consumer Technology Association, sponsor of the CES gadget show, said it will require attendees in January to be vaccinated to enter venues including the expanded Las Vegas Convention Center, Mandalay Bay and Sands Expo center. “We understand vaccines offer us the best hope for stopping the spread of COVID-19,” Gary Shapiro, association president and CEO, said in a statement. “We are taking on our responsibility by requiring proof of vaccination to attend CES 2022 in Las Vegas.” The announcement came a day after Gov. Steve Sisolak said indoor venues with 4,000 or more attendees…

The Chinese government has made investments in two of the nation’s most significant technology firms — ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns global video app TikTok, and Weibo, China’s version of Twitter — in a move apparently intended to bolster its sway over the nation’s flourishing technology sector. In April, ByteDance sold a 1% stake in its Chinese subsidiary, Beijing ByteDance Technology Co., to WangTouZhongWen (Beijing) Technology, a state-backed firm, according to public government records and the corporate information platform Qichacha. WangTouZhongWen is owned by three Chinese state entities, one of which is linked to a fund backed by the Cyberspace Administration of China, the nation’s internet watchdog, according to government records and Qichacha data. The Information, a U.S. tech site, earlier reported that Bytedance had also given a board…

Toyota is scaling back production in North America and Japan as the surging coronavirus pandemic in Southeast Asia and elsewhere crimps supplies. Japan’s top automaker said Thursday that it will cut back production at home by 40%, affecting 14 auto assembly plants in the country. In North America, Toyota said it expects August production to be slashed by 60,000 to 90,000 vehicles. A representative from Toyota said that output fluctuates month to month, but that it would equate to a production cut of between 40% and 60%. “Due to COVID-19 and unexpected events with our supply chain, Toyota is experiencing additional shortages that will affect production at most of our North American plants,” the company said in a prepared statement Thursday. “While the situation remains fluid and complex, our manufacturing…

U.S. officials launched a review Thursday of climate damage caused by coal mining on public lands as the Biden administration expands its scrutiny of government fossil fuel sales that contribute to greenhouse gas emissions. The review also will consider if companies are paying fair value for coal extracted from public reserves in Wyoming, Montana, Colorado, Utah and other states. Coal combustion for electricity remains one of the top sources of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, even after many power plants shut down over the past decade because of concerns over pollution. Almost half the nation’s annual coal production — some 250 million tons last year — is mined by private companies from leases on federal land, primarily in Western states. Coal lease sales were temporarily shut down under President Barack Obama…

A Belgian-British teenager took to the skies Wednesday in her quest to become the youngest woman to fly around the world solo. With her parents looking on, 19-year-old Zara Rutherford took off from an airstrip in Kortrijk, western Belgium in gusty, overcast conditions. Rutherford is aiming to break the record set by American aviator Shaesta Waiz, who was 30 when she set the world benchmark in 2017. By narrowing the gap from 12 years to just one, she hopes to show other young women and girls that the sky’s the limit when it comes to making their own mark on the history of aviation. Rutherford aims to fly her fast and light Shark sport aircraft over five continents and 52 countries in an aerial trek that’s likely to take 2-3…

Investing in cryptocurrency can be as easy as a few taps on your phone, and with crypto all over the news and coming up in conversations with friends, it’s tempting to dive right in. However, depending on your financial situation and appetite for investing risk, crypto might not be an appropriate investment for you right now — or ever. “I am the biggest crypto hippie you’ll talk to in a very long time,” says Tyrone Ross, CEO of Onramp Invest, a cryptoasset platform for registered investment advisors . And yet, he cautions against it. “I don’t think the general public should be investing in crypto.” Picture your finances as an ice cream sundae, with crypto as the cherry on top. It makes up a small proportion of the overall sundae,…

U.S. Census Bureau computer servers were exploited last year during a cybersecurity attack, but it didn’t involve the 2020 census, and hackers’ attempts to keep access to the system were unsuccessful, according to a watchdog report released this week. The attack took place in January 2020 on the bureau’s remote access servers. According to the Office of Inspector General, the Census Bureau missed opportunities to limit its vulnerability to the attack and didn’t discover and report the attack in a timely manner. The statistical agency also failed to keep sufficient system logs, which hindered the investigation, and was using operating system no longer supported by the vendor, the watchdog report said. The bureau’s firewalls stopped the attacker’s attempts to maintain access to the system through a backdoor, but unauthorized changes…

Boeing’s astronaut capsule is grounded for months and possibly even until next year because of a vexing valve problem. Boeing and NASA officials said that the Starliner capsule will be removed from the top of its rocket and returned to its Kennedy Space Center hangar for more extensive repairs. Starliner was poised to blast off on a repeat test flight to the International Space Station last week — carrying a mannequin but no astronauts — when the trouble arose. A similar capsule was plagued by software issues in 2019 that prevented it from reaching the space station. “We’re obviously disappointed,” said John Vollmer, vice president and program manager of Boeing’s commercial crew program. “We will fly this test when we’re ready to fly it and it’s safe to do so.”…

Walmart raised its sales outlook for the year as Americans returned to shopping for back-to-school clothes and travel goods during the second quarter. Still, concerns are mounting over how shoppers will behave in the months ahead as the delta variant of COVID-19 surges across the U.S. and mask mandates are reinstated. On top of that, higher prices on everything from food to automobiles are making shoppers more conscious about spending. And temporary government stimulus and other benefits, which helped prop up overall spending, are dissipating. Other major retailers are reporting quarterly results this week and next, and there is early evidence that behaviors that changed vastly during the pandemic, have begun to change again, or at least normalize. Data from Home Depot, which also reported earnings, showed that traffic in…

Multiple federal agencies that operated in Afghanistan and worked with Afghan citizens have been hastily purging their websites, removing articles and photos that could endanger the Afghan civilians who interacted with them and now fear retribution from the Taliban. The online scrubbing campaign appeared to begin late last week when it became clear that the Afghan security forces had completely collapsed and the Taliban would take over the country far faster than even the most alarmist official predictions. The concern is that the Taliban or its supporters would search the websites and identify Afghans who had worked with the Americans or merely benefited from their services. State Department Spokesman Ned Price said the department was advising personnel to search for and remove social media and website content featuring civilians because…

Japanese space agency scientists said they plan to bring soil samples back from the Mars region ahead of the United States and China, which started Mars missions last year, in hopes of finding clues to the planet’s origin and traces of possible life. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA, plans to launch an explorer in 2024 to land on Phobos, a Martian moon, to collect 10 grams (0.35 ounce) of soil and bring it back to Earth in 2029. The rapid return trip is expected to put Japan ahead of the United States and China in bringing back samples from the Martian region despite starting later, project manager Yasuhiro Kawakatsu said in an online news conference. NASA’s Perseverance rover has landed in a Mars crater where it is to…

A civilian Pentagon official ordered the Army Corps of Engineers to conduct a full environmental assessment of a $9.4 billion Formosa Plastics complex planned in Louisiana, drawing praise from environmentalists. Jaime Pinkham, the Army’s acting assistant secretary for civil works, ordered the review after a virtual meeting with opponents of a Corps wetlands permit that allowed Formosa Plastics Group member FG LA LLC to build 10 chemical plants and four other major facilities on the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge and New Orleans. Critics praised the decision. “The Army Corps has finally heard our pleas and understands our pain. With God’s help, Formosa Plastics will soon pull out of our community,” said a statement by Sharon Lavigne, who founded the local group Rise St. James to fight the planned complex…

Apple will release the next generation of iOS, macOS, tvOS and watchOS in less than a month’s time, but that hasn’t stopped millions of consumers and tech fans from installing the public beta to access new features ahead of time. If you’re excited to get your hands on the all-new Safari, Universal Control and FaceTime improvements, the beta could be for you. UNDERSTANDING THE BETAS Every year, Apple holds its now iconic Worldwide Developers Conference, also known as the WWDC or dub-dub, where it shows off the exciting changes it’s been making to the world’s most popular operating systems. Immediately after, developers can get their hands on an early build of the software so that they can test out the features and see how it’ll work with their apps. Developers…

The U.S. government has opened a formal investigation into Tesla’s Autopilot partially automated driving system after a series of collisions with parked emergency vehicles. The investigation covers 765,000 vehicles, almost everything that Tesla has sold in the U.S. since the start of the 2014 model year. Of the crashes identified by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration as part of the probe, 17 people were injured and one was killed. NHTSA says it has identified 11 crashes since 2018 in which Teslas on Autopilot or Traffic Aware Cruise Control have hit vehicles at scenes where first responders have used flashing lights, flares, an illuminated arrow board or cones warning of hazards. The agency announced the action in a posting on its website. The probe is another sign that NHTSA under…

There’s a running joke at Dan Wagner’s house about the DIY welding and construction shop he set up in his backyard. At random moments throughout the day, his roommates yell out “eeeyerrrr,” mimicking the high-pitched grinding noise that’s become a soundtrack to their lives this summer. “They’re going to miss me when I’m gone,”Wagner said, laughing. That sound is a byproduct of the project Wagner and a team of University of Colorado Boulder students have spent thousands of hours working on this year: designing and building a tunnel boring machine. The CU Hyperloop team is one of 12 groups in the world competing to build a machine that will chew through nearly 100 feet of earth to create a tunnel as fast as possible. The Not-A-Boring competition is hosted by…

They say silence is golden. It’s a silly phrase, really, but it takes on an urgent poignancy for three stunning minutes in “CODA,” Siân Heder’s refreshing, loving and altogether irresistible film about a deaf family with one hearing daughter. In this extraordinary scene, Ruby, 17 (impressive newcomer Emilia Jones) and mother Jackie (a superb Marlee Matlin) are having a heart-to-heart in Ruby’s bedroom — something all of us moms and daughters have experienced, except not, because one is deaf and the other isn’t. Ruby asks her mom if she ever wished that she, her only hearing child, were deaf. The answer will both make you smile and break your heart, like a lot of this movie. And then you’ll realize that for the entire three minutes, you’ve barely heard a…

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said that the U.S. economy has been permanently changed by the COVID pandemic and it is important that the central bank adapt to those changes. “We’re not simply going back to the economy that we had before the pandemic,” Powell said at a Fed virtual town hall for educators and students. “We need to watch carefully as the economy continues to get through the pandemic and try to understand the ways that the economy has changed and what the implications are for our policy.” Powell said that, while it is not yet clear if the delta variant of COVID will have further impact on the economy, the country has already seen significant changes since the pandemic began shutting the country down in March 2020. Those…

Cuba’s government spelled out its laws against using social media or the internet to stir up protests or insult the state — and offered people a form to report offenders. The decrees published in the Official Gazette follow the largest protests Cuba has seen in years, which broke out last month and apparently were fed in part by messages on social media applications. A decree signed by Communications Minister Mayra Arevich was meant to “prevent, detect and respond opportunely to possible enemy, criminal and harmful activities that could occur in cyberspace.” It forbids spreading content that attacks “the constitutional, social and economic” rules of the state or that incite demonstrations or other acts “that alter public order.” It also targets messages that justify violence or that affect people’s privacy or…