Innholdsfortegnelse for #530 i Techlife News

Whilst Apple has undoubtedly faced challenges this year amidst the coronavirus pandemic, the Cupertino company has continued to innovate in a number of key fields, pushing forward its vision for best-in-class hardware and software. With iPhone 13, the M1 Max MacBook Pro, AirTags, the all-new iMac, and a bunch of iPad improvements, 2021 was a huge year. STARTING THE YEAR ON A HIGH There’s no denying that 2020 was a challenging year for the world, and though 2021 did not exactly begin with the best of starts, Apple managed to pull through and introduce many amazing new products early on. The firm’s usual March event was postponed to April, where Tim Cook and Co showed off a number of new pieces of hardware, including the much anticipated AirTags, Apple’s answer…

Dozens of websites went down briefly around the globe Tuesday, including CNN, The New York Times and Britain’s government home page, after an outage at the cloud computing service Fastly, illustrating how vital a small number of behind-the-scenes companies have become to running the internet. The sites that could not be reached also included some Amazon pages, the Financial Times, Reddit, Twitch and The Guardian. San Francisco-based Fastly acknowledged a problem just before 6 a.m. Eastern. About an hour later, the company said: “The issue has been identified and a fix has been applied.” Most of the sites soon appeared to be back online. The company said in an emailed statement that it was a “technical issue” and “not related to a cyber attack.” Still, major futures markets in the…

Going to the gym was always part of Kari Hamra’s routine until last year’s government-ordered shutdowns forced her to replace the workouts with daily rides on her Peloton stationary bike. That’s when she discovered something surprising — she did not miss the gym. At least not the driving back and forth, filling water bottles, changing clothes and most of all, taking time away from her husband and two boys. Now that her gym in Springfield, Missouri, is open again, she’s slowly returning. But finding a more convenient exercise schedule at home and seeing a surge of COVID-19 cases in her hometown this summer have her questioning how much she needs the gym. She figures that if there never had been a coronavirus outbreak “I would still be a gym rat.”…

Though today the company might be one of the world’s most exclusive and innovative, it hasn’t always been an easy road for Tesla and CEO Elon Musk. In seventeen short years, the company has racked up an impressive number of milestones and is reshaping the way we travel and think about the future. As Tesla readies the release of the new Model S, as well as its Semi, Cybertruck, and Roadster, the organization is headed for the fast lane. THE JOURNEY SO FAR In less than two decades, the Silicon Valley electric-car company has transformed the auto industry in ways we never thought possible - creating an American car brand and forcing its rivals to switch to electric and take significant ranks. Not only has it benefited the US economy…

As messaging giant WhatsApp prepares to hand over more data to Facebook, users are flocking to rival services in protest, with Signal jumping from 250,000 downloads on the App Store a week to almost 10 million. The move sparks debate over the relationships we hold with the world’s biggest technology companies and a new war on privacy is rearing its head. WHATSAPP CONTROVERSY As Facebook continues to integrate its Messenger, Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp services to harvest more data from consumers and to futureproof itself against anti-trust investigations and growing pleas to break itself up, the company announced early January that it was planning to make changes to its privacy policy. For the first time, the application will begin sharing information about what you share on the app with Facebook,…

Terry Colli and three other residents of the John Knox Village senior community got a trip via computer to the International Space Station, a kickoff to a Stanford University study on whether virtual reality can improve the emotional wellbeing of older people. Donning 1-pound (470-gram) headsets with video and sound, the four could imagine floating weightless with astronauts and get a 360-degree tour of the station. In other programs, residents can take virtual visits to Paris, Venice, Egypt or elsewhere around the globe; attend a car rally, skydive or go on a hike. “I feel great. It is amazing. It is like you are really there,” said Colli, 73, and a former spokesman for the Canadian embassy in Washington. Stanford’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab will be working with John Knox’s…

The deal the United States and the European Union reached this week to end their long-running rift over subsidies to Boeing and Airbus will suspend billions in punitive tariffs. It will ease trans-Atlantic tensions. And it will let the two sides focus on a common economic threat: China. But the breakthrough still leaves some trade friction between the U.S. and the EU unresolved. Most prominently, President Biden kept in place import taxes that President Donald Trump imposed on European steel and aluminum, a move that infuriated some of America’s closet allies three years ago. For now, the truce in the Boeing-Airbus dispute goes a long way toward repairing a huge commercial relationship — $933 billion in two-way trade last year despite the pandemic — that came under enormous strain during…

With more than 47 million Twitter followers, Elon Musk holds a great deal of influence in the world of tech and cryptocurrency, proven by Dogecoin’s meteoric growth in recent weeks. A single tweet from Musk sparked overnight interest in the currency, first released in 2013, and now has investors taking it seriously. The payment system, developed by Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer, reached a market capitalization of $5,382,875,000 in January, and with its value growing rapidly, it’s a genuine Bitcoin alternative. Now could be the time to invest… THE CHANGING CONSUMER LANDSCAPE In early February, SpaceX founder Elon Musk sent out one tweet to his millions of followers, asking “Who let the Doge Out?” - it amassed almost 800,000 likes and changed the fortunes of the cryptocurrency overnight, not only…

Though Apple Music may still be playing catchup to Spotify in terms of users, new data from the Mechanical Licensing Collective has revealed Apple is the industry leader when it comes to royalties, demonstrating the company’s commitment to paying talent. As Apple continues to expand its services, the future looks bright, with new Music innovations coming their way. AT THE TOP SPOT In a perhaps unsurprising announcement, Apple was named in mid-February as the biggest contributor of music streaming royalties in the world, ahead of rivals Spotify, Amazon Music, and YouTube. According to the Mechanical Licensing Collective, streaming services have paid out more than $424,384,787 in revenue to musicians and labels to date, with Apple Music contributing the biggest share with $163,338,890 paid out. The figure represents “historical unmatched royalties…

With consumers encouraged to upgrade their smartphones on a near-annual basis and the throwaway culture of technology continuing apace, e-waste is fast-becoming one of the key environmental concerns. Less than 40% of our phones, tablets, and laptops are recycled, with the rest destined for landfill. The key to change lies with us - and our technology giants. THE RISE OF E-WASTE Though e-waste has been a concern for a number of years, it’s only in the past decade that consumers have adopted technology in such a way that is causing catastrophic damage to our environment. According to one recent study, the average home now contains 19 devices , with IoT technologies such as smart speakers ballooning that figure. Data out of Europe suggests just 40% of e-waste in the European…

If you’re homeless and looking for temporary shelter in Hawaii’s capital, expect a visit from a robotic police dog that will scan your eye to make sure you don’t have a fever. That’s just one of the ways public safety agencies are starting to use Spot, the best-known of a new commercial category of robots that trot around with animal-like agility. The handful of police officials experimenting with the four-legged machines say they’re just another tool, like existing drones and simple wheeled robots, to keep emergency responders out of harm’s way as they scout for dangers. But privacy watchdogs — the human kind — warn that police are secretly rushing to buy the robots without setting safeguards against aggressive, invasive or dehumanizing uses. In Honolulu, the police department spent about…

Businesses figured out how to work remotely on the fly when COVID-19 rapidly disrupted our way of working. Those planning to adopt a hybrid work model when they return to the office still have time to prepare. But managing a distributed team comes with its own unique challenges, like: — What does hybrid look like for your company? — How do you keep remote employees engaged? — What apps and software do you need to create a seamless experience? These are tough questions to answer and you’re unlikely to please everyone. But you get a chance to build a new office culture, and there’s something exciting about that. “If I think about a transformational time for how people work — this is it,” says Megan Jarvis, vice president of talent…

Wherever you are in the world, it’s hard to deny that 2020 was a challenging year - not least the automotive sector. With car sales plummeting amidst stay-at-home orders, consumers had a chance to reflect on their environmental impact, and as a result, electric vehicles are now more desirable than ever. 2021 looks set to be the biggest year yet, with huge launches from some of the industry’s biggest players, helping to create a greener planet for us all. CHANGING CONSUMER ATTITUDES Though there has been a seismic shift in electric car adoption rates over the past decade, the coronavirus lockdowns drastically changed the way we work, travel, and play. Work from home restrictions meant that our cars were less useful than ever before, with 12% saying they’d give up…

According to a new study from WhistleOut, the average consumer spends an eye-watering nine years of their lives looking at their smartphones, and that’s without mentioning the use of computers, televisions, and other devices that increasingly control our lives. As innovators look to the future, we could be headed for a world where “The Human Interface” takes over, replacing the screens, apps, and keyboards we’re used to with new, immersive experiences. INTRODUCING THE HUMAN INTERFACE Though we may have embraced a digital revolution over the past couple of years, the truth is that tech has a dark side, leading to stress, anxiety, the fear of missing out, and addiction, and as the past year, engulfed in health anxiety over the coronavirus pandemic and being forced to spend more time at…

Apple’s design language has changed a great deal in recent years, away from the silvers and rounded edges towards a modern, industrial-inspired design, as sported by the iPad Pro and iPhone 12. That design language is set to be elevated this year with the introduction of new iMacs and MacBooks. Yet one thing has remained consistent throughout the transition: consistency. Over the years Apple has shown a keen eye for detail, ensuring the company’s portfolio stands out from the crowd, creating cutting-edge, ‘unmistakably Apple’ products. DESIGN MATTERS Apple has always taken design seriously, cementing the company’s position as one of the most well-known and instantly recognized in the world. Where other technology brands have piggybacked off of current trends - often taking a leaf out of Apple’s book - the…