Innholdsfortegnelse for #541 i Techlife News

“What surroundings, Mrs. Russell. We could be at Tsarskoye Selo,” exclaims Nathan Lane’s snooty Ward McAllister at his first glance of her opulent Fifth Avenue mansion on “The Gilded Age.” The social arbiter’s reference to an 18th century palace outside St. Petersburg, Russia, is lost on the new-money Bertha, but the point was made: The HBO Max series has brought alive America’s post-Civil War renaissance and New York City’s cultural awakening in all its Beaux Arts glory. The term, which translates simply as “fine arts,” was anything but simple in the hands of the city’s wealthiest figures of the time — names like Astor, Carnegie, Frick, Morgan, Rockefeller, Vanderbilt and more. Thanks to this powerful ruling class and their architects, the period roughly spanning the 1870s to the 1930s produced…

Some social media users suggest that soaring fuel prices in the U.S. aren’t the result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, increased consumption or supply chain issues as daily life resumes after two years of stagnation brought on by the coronavirus pandemic. Instead, the flurry of Facebook and Twitter posts offer, without evidence, that a nefarious scheme is underway: President Joe Biden’s administration is intentionally driving up the price of gas to get more American drivers behind the wheel of an electric car. “$6.00 a gallon gas is how you get people to buy electric cars,” claims one popular meme, shared thousands of times across Facebook and Instagram since Tuesday. The newest internet fabrication shows that Americans’ obsession with conspiracy theories continues to play an outsize role in how they interpret…

Apple on Tuesday unveiled a new version of its budget-priced iPhone that’s capable of connecting to ultrafast 5G wireless networks, an upgrade that’s already been available on the company’s upscale models for more than a year. The latest iPhone SE marks the first upgrade to the bare-bones version of Apple’s most popular product in nearly two years. In the latest sign of the inflationary pressures that have been roiling the economy, the new iPhone SE will sell for $429 — an 8% increase from $399 price tag for the last version that rolled out it nearly two years ago during the early stages of the pandemic. The new iPhone SE will be available in stores March 18. In a pandemic precaution, Apple still refrained from inviting the media and other…

Hackers working on behalf of the Chinese government broke into the computer networks of at least six state governments in the United States in the last year, according to a report released this week by a private cybersecurity firm. The report from Mandiant does not identify the compromised states or offer a motive for the intrusions, which began last May and continued through last month. But the Chinese group believed responsible for the breaches, APT41, is known to launch hacking operations both for old-fashioned espionage purposes and for financial gain. “While the ongoing crisis in Ukraine has rightfully captured the world’s attention and the potential for Russian cyber threats are real, we must remember that other major threat actors around the world are continuing their operations as-usual,” said Geoff Ackerman,…

Niantic Labs CEO John Hanke has been working on technology that helps people navigate and enjoy places in the real world since he helped create Google Maps nearly 20 years ago. So it’s not surprising that he isn’t a fan of the current hyperbole surrounding the notion that technology is poised to hatch a “metaverse” — a three-dimensional simulation of the actual world populated by digital avatars of ourselves gathering with friends, family and colleagues to play, work and experience other aspects of an artificial life so compelling that it feels real. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is such an ardent fan of a concept that he hails as an “embodied internet” that he recently renamed his company Meta. Hanke, though, fears Zuckerberg’s vision would become more like a “dystopian nightmare.”…

Two U.S. university campuses are losing their food-delivery robots for now because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Grubhub said that it is ending its partnership with Russian tech company Yandex and pulling 100 Yandex-made food-delivery robots from the campuses of Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, and the University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona. Chicago-based Grubhub said it is working with both campuses to find alternatives. Grubhub had been using the robots to deliver food on campus at Ohio State since August. The company launched robot delivery at the University of Arizona last November. The company says it was doing 1,000 deliveries a day between the two campuses. Yandex is Russia’s largest internet search and ride-hailing company. Toby Snuggs, head of sales for the Yandex Self-Driving Group, confirmed the split…

Consumer appetites for small SUVs seem insatiable, and as electrification reaches every corner of the automotive landscape, a spotlight has appeared over compact EV SUVs. For two years, the Tesla Model Y has led this burgeoning niche with longer range estimates, cutting-edge driver aids and an established charging network. But other automakers are offering new alternatives, and the most promising may be from Hyundai. Hyundai introduces the Ioniq 5, the latest member of the Ioniq family of vehicles, as its first electric vehicle designed from the ground up. It is positioned as an attainable, feature-rich and stylish crossover with strong range figures. Which EV is best? Experts compared them to find out. CHARGING AND RANGE The Tesla Model Y is equipped with a 75-kWh battery and all-wheel drive for both…

In just a couple of months, a new cohort of college graduates will leave behind their careers as students and start new ones as entry-level workers. And for many –– regardless of age –– that change brings a whole new financial landscape to navigate. Gabby DelMonaco, a financial planning assistant in Silver Spring, Maryland, is set to graduate from college this spring. She began budgeting and covering her own living costs when she started college and feels financially prepared to leave school. But she’s not sure her classmates are all in the same position. “I think a lot of people are just unaware of the reality of how much it really costs to live on your own,” says DelMonaco. College graduation might mean you land a job and have more…

Leading Russian banks are looking into using a Chinese payment rival after Visa and Mastercard suspended operations, while all the big global accounting firms said they would pull out of Russia in the latest corporate fallout over the invasion of Ukraine. Ernst & Young and Deloitte cut ties with their operations in Russia, both saying they would work to support thousands of colleagues who will be affected. Ernst & Young cited what it called the “shocking and abhorrent war in Ukraine,” and Deloitte also said it would exit Moscow-allied Belarus. KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers, the other so-called Big Four accounting firms, announced their exits from Russia a day earlier. A host of foreign companies have suspended financial services in Russia — as well as major brands from Apple to Shell and…

Lawmakers followed through Wednesday on their threat to seek a criminal investigation of Amazon, asking the Justice Department to investigate whether the tech giant and senior executives obstructed Congress or violated other federal laws in testimony on its competition practices. The House Judiciary Committee escalated the bipartisan battle against the world’s biggest online retailer with a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland referring the case for a criminal inquiry. Amazon engaged in misleading conduct that appeared designed to “influence, obstruct or impede” the antitrust subcommittee’s 2019-20 investigation into the market dominance of Big Tech, the letter says. As an example, it cited testimony by a senior Amazon official maintaining that the company doesn’t use the data it collects on third-party merchants on its platform to compete with them, and doesn’t…

Ukraine’s attempt to get Russia kicked off the internet failed, but a diverse group of experts proposes a more narrow approach to sanctioning the Kremlin for invading its neighbor: Consider creating a mechanism that could technically blacklist individual Russian military and propaganda websites. In an open letter released Thursday, the activists say it’s time the internet community developed a way to confront humanitarian crises. The idea they float would mean gathering and publishing a list of sanctioned IP addresses and domain names in the form of data feeds that telecommunications providers and other network operators could subscribe to with the goal of rendering the targets unreachable. No new technology would be required and putting the system to work would require minimal effort because it would mirror existing ones already in…

Apple will enter the live sports coverage arena with “Friday Night Baseball.” Apple and Major League Baseball announced Tuesday that Apple TV+ will carry a weekly doubleheader on Friday nights in eight countries when the regular season begins. Games will initially be available without the need for an Apple TV+ subscription. The games will be exclusively on Apple TV+ and will not be available on teams’ regional sports networks. MLB has been under a work stoppage since owners locked out players at the end of the collective bargaining agreement. At 97 days, it is the second-longest work stoppage in baseball history. The broadcasts on Apple TV+ will include pregame and postgame shows and will not be subject to local broadcast blackout restrictions. They will be produced by MLB Network. Besides…

Google is fortifying its cloud services with a $5.4 billion acquisition of the cyber security firm Mandiant, the companies announced Tuesday. The acquisition is the first of many that analysts foresee in the cyber security sector following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Analysts and government officials have said they expect a wave of cyberattacks from Russia and others as geopolitical tensions rise. “In a massive growth backdrop for cyber security and further tailwinds seen during this Ukraine invasion from Russia bad actors/nation state attacks, we believe today’s deal is the tip of the iceberg to a massive phase of consolidation potentially ahead for the cloud space,”Wedbush analyst Dan Ives wrote Tuesday. Google, a subsidiary of Mountain View, California-based Alphabet Inc., will pay $23 per Mandiant share in all-cash deal expected to…

Late in 2013, with bitcoin prices in the middle of a steep dip, a post appeared in an online forum featuring a misspelling that would become legendary:“I AM HODLING.” The mangling of the word“hold”captured a kind of irreverent blind faith of some early cryptocurrency adopters, and it has since become a part of the lexicon of digital assets. But“HODL”is more than just a meme. According to financial planners and analysts, it’s also a rational response to a market whose ups and downs are exceedingly difficult to predict. “The holding part of it is important because it’s a nascent industry, and as a retail investor you are not well-equipped to be able to capture the volatility and to trade the assets,” says Theresa Morrison, a certified financial planner in Tucson, Arizona.…

Tesla CEO Elon Musk is asking a federal judge to nullify a subpoena from securities regulators and throw out a 2018 court agreement in which Musk had to have someone pre-approve his posts on Twitter. In a motion filed this week in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, Musk attorney Alex Spiro contends that the subpoena from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has no basis in law. He also says the SEC can’t take action about Musk’s tweets without court authorization. Spiro says the SEC has used the court agreement “to trample on Mr. Musk’s First Amendment rights and to impose prior restraints on his speech.” The SEC declined comment. In the past it has denied issuing subpoenas in the Musk Twitter case. The dispute, which had been limited to…

NASCAR’s underdogs will have a fighting chance in the Next Gen car, according to the development plan for the ballyhooed new model, and the racing would be much better. New car configurations would force drivers to muscle the cars like never before. Well, four races into the new season on four entirely different circuits, NASCAR seems to have actually delivered on the promise. Sure, the top teams have still won all the races. First it was Team Penske with back-to-back wins in the exhibition Busch Clash and Daytona 500, and then Hendrick Motorsports made consecutive trips to victory lane in California and Las Vegas. “You’re never going to shut down the giant race teams, right?” Hendrick driver Alex Bowman said after his victory at Las Vegas. Perhaps not. But the…

The Georgia state Senate voted 33-21 on Tuesday to pass a bill that seeks to prohibit social media platforms from removing or censoring content amid an outcry from conservatives that their political views are being discriminated against, even though a similar Texas law has been put on hold by a federal court. Senate Bill 393 moves to the House for more debate. It declares that social media companies that have more than 20 million users in the United States are common carriers and that they can’t block people from receiving certain messages based on viewpoints, location, race, ethnicity, religion, political beliefs, gender, sexual orientation or disability. “What we are stating here is you cannot be discriminated against for your viewpoint, your gender, your age or other things in this 21st…

U.S. authorities have broadly expanded the use of a smartphone app during the coronavirus pandemic to ensure immigrants released from detention will attend deportation hearings, a requirement that advocates say violates their privacy and makes them feel they’re not free. More than 125,000 people — many of them stopped at the U.S.-Mexico border — are now compelled to install the app known as SmartLink on their phones, up from around 5,000 less than three years ago. It allows officials to easily check on them by requiring the immigrants to send a selfie or make or receive a phone call when asked. Although the technology is less cumbersome than an ankle monitor, advocates say tethering immigrants to the app is unfair considering many have paid bond to get out of U.S.…

Twitter has launched a privacy-protected version of its site to bypass surveillance and censorship after Russia restricted access to its service in the country. Russia has blocked access to Facebook and has limited Twitter in an attempt to try to restrict the flow of information about its war in Ukraine. Both companies have said they are working on restoring access to people inside Russia even as they restrict the country’s state media from their services. Known as an“onion”service, users can access this version of Twitter if they download the Tor browser, which allows people to access sites on what is also referred to as the“dark web.”Instead of .com, onion sites have a .onion suffix. Regular websites, including Twitter.com, are also accessible on Tor, but the .onion versions are made specifically…

Apple tore up the rulebook at its March Peek Performance event, introducing a range of new products including the Mac Studio and a stunning new Studio Display. As well as a refreshed iPad Air and iPhone SE, the company lifted the lid on the M1 Ultra processor, giving users another reason to lock themselves into the Apple ecosystem for powerhouse performance. PEEK PERFORMANCE Apple’s March events are typically low-key affairs with smaller product announcements and upgrades. This year, Apple took a different approach, debuting a whole host of exciting new products to add to its Mac portfolio, giving consumers more choice than ever before. The firm started off the event with the news that Friday Night Baseball is coming to Apple TV+, before moving onto stunning new color options for…

Microsoft has closed on its approximately $16 billion acquisition of speech recognition company Nuance. The deal, which was announced last year, helps Microsoft Corp. get more entrenched into hospitals and the health care industry through Nuance’s widely used medical dictation and transcription tools. The acquisition is Microsoft’s second-largest after its $26 billion purchase of career networking service LinkedIn in 2016. Nuance’s artificial intelligence technology helped power Apple’s Siri digital voice assistant upon its release on iPhones more than a decade agol. The Burlington, Massachusetts-based company has since shifted to focus on physicians and other tailored uses of its Dragon line of voice recognition tools. Microsoft announced it was buying the company in April 2021 but faced a setback in December when British antitrust regulators said they were opening an investigation…

President Joe Biden on Wednesday signed an executive order on government oversight of cryptocurrency that urges the Federal Reserve to explore whether the central bank should jump in and create its own digital currency. The Biden administration views the explosive popularity of cryptocurrency as an opportunity to examine the risks and benefits of digital assets, said a senior administration official who previewed the order Tuesday on the condition of anonymity, terms set by the White House. Under the executive order, Biden also has directed the Treasury Department and other federal agencies to study the impact of cryptocurrency on financial stability and national security. Brian Deese and Jake Sullivan, Biden’s top economic and national security advisers, respectively, said the order establishes the first comprehensive federal digital assets strategy for the United…

Apple’s shareholders have approved a proposal urging the iPhone maker to undergo an independent audit assessing its treatment of female and minority employees, delivering a rare rebuke to a management team that runs the world’s most valuable company. The measure passed last week during Apple’s annual meeting is nonbinding, so the Cupertino, California, company isn’t required to adopt the recommendation. But rebuffing the wishes of its shareholders would thrust Apple into an uncomfortable position, especially since the company has long cast itself as a champion of civil rights. CEO Tim Cook reiterated that belief in response to a question from a shareholder during the meeting held remotely. “I have long believed that inclusion and diversity are essential in their own right,”Cook said.“And that a diversity of people, experiences and ideas…

For better and worse, “Turning Red” is like no Pixar film before it. The film, directed by Domee Shi, who made the lovely Oscar-winning short “Bao,” is the first Pixar movie directly solely by a woman. Its leadership team, including producers and art departments, is entirely female. And its protagonist, 13-year-old Meilin Lee (voiced by Rosalie Chiang), is a Chinese-Canadian eighth-grader in the throws of puberty. For Pixar, a factory of childhood whimsy designed to make adults cry, “Turning Red” fills in more than a few blind spots. Not only is the movie deeply rooted in a female and Asian-North American perspective, it wades into a chapter of life unfrequented by Pixar. This is the first film by the studio in which, for example, a sanitary pad is offered. And…

Netflix and TikTok suspended most of their services in Russia as the government cracks down on what people and media outlets can say about Russia’s war in Ukraine. TikTok said Russian users of the popular social media app would no longer be able to post new videos or livestreams and they also wouldn’t be able to see videos shared from elsewhere in the world. Netflix said it was suspending its service in Russia but didn’t provide additional details. The actions are likely to further isolate the country and its people after a growing number of multinational businesses have cut off Russia from vital financial services and technology products in response to Western economic sanctions and global outrage over the invasion of Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin intensified a crackdown on…