Innholdsfortegnelse for #549 i Techlife News

Idaho needs to be better prepared to defend against inevitable cyberattacks that could harm individuals, businesses and critical infrastructure, the Governor’s Cybersecurity Task Force said in a report released this week. The 34-page report contains 18 major recommendations that include providing active cyber deterrence, increasing spending on cybersecurity, ensuring election integrity and increasing the public’s awareness of cybersecurity threats. “Across our state and throughout the nation, there have been few more pressing threats than the threat to safety, security and freedom of cyberattacks,” said Republican Gov. Brad Little at a Cyber Security Task Force news conference announcing the report at the Idaho National Laboratory Meeting Center in Idaho Falls. “This is not a one-and-done,” Little said. “We’re going to implement the baselines from this, but then we’re going to have…

Telecommunications industry groups ended their bid to block California’s net neutrality law that bars broadband providers from throttling service. In a federal court filing in Sacramento, the groups and California Attorney General Rob Bonta jointly agreed to dismiss the case. The move followed a January decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals allowing enforcement of the 2018 law, which bans internet providers from slowing down or blocking access to websites and applications that don’t pay for premium service. “The case is finally over,” Bonta said in a statement. “With this victory, we’ve secured a free and open internet for California’s 40 million residents once and for all.” Messages seeking comment from an attorney representing the groups weren’t immediately returned. The law was signed by former Gov. Jerry Brown…

Amazon workers at a warehouse on Staten Island overwhelmingly rejected a union bid on Monday, dealing a blow to organizers who last month pulled off the first successful U.S. organizing effort in the retail giant’s history. This time around, warehouse workers cast 618 votes — or about 62% — against the union, giving Amazon enough support to fend off a second labor win and raise questions as to whether the first victory was just a fluke. According to the National Labor Relations Board, which oversees the process, 380 workers — or 38% — voted in favor of the grassroots union. Turnout was 61%, with about 1,600 workers eligible to vote, according to a voter list provided by Amazon. The few ballots that were challenged by either the company or the…

Apple reported strong quarterly results despite supply shortages, but warned that its growth slowdown is likely to deepen. The company said it’s still struggling to get enough chips to meet demand and contending with COVID-related shutdowns at factories in China that make iPhones and other products. Although initial results for the January-March period topped analysts’ projections, the good news was quickly eclipsed when management warned of trouble ahead during a conference call. The main takeaway: Apple’s sales will be squeezed by the supply problems much harder in the current April-June quarter than in its previous one. The company estimated it would take a hit to revenue of $4 billion to $8 billion as a result. “It will affect most of the product categories,” Apple CEO Tim Cook told analysts. Apple’s…

A battery materials company has purchased a 600,000-square foot facility in Moses Lake, Washington, to be used to manufacture lithium-ion anode battery materials for the automotive and cell phone industries. Sila, based in Alameda, California, said the facility will bring hundreds of new jobs to the central Washington town. The company said it was drawn by the region’s abundant hydropower. Sila is making an initial investment to deliver silicon-based anode production sufficient to power batteries in 100,000 to 500,000 electric vehicles and 500 million mobile phones annually. Production lines at the facility will start-up in the second half of 2024, and reach full production in the first half of 2025. The Moses Lake site has the potential for exponential growth that could power two million to 10 million electric vehicles…

Airbnb said this week it will impose special restrictions over the Memorial Day and July 4 holidays to prevent parties at rented houses, bringing back measures that the company claims worked last summer. Renters who don’t have a “history of positive reviews on Airbnb” will be barred from making one-night reservations for houses, and there will also be limits on who can make two-night bookings, the company said. Airbnb said it will require renters to confirm that they understand the company’s ban on parties and that Airbnb could take legal action against violators. The company said guests who have received positive marks in the past won’t be affected by the changes. San Francisco-based Airbnb said similar measures prevented 126,000 people from renting properties over the July 4 holiday last year…

FIFA got a first new American sponsor of the men’s World Cup in 11 years, signing a deal for this year’s tournament in Qatar with blockchain technology provider Algorand. The deal is also a “technical partnership” to help FIFA develop a digital assets strategy, soccer’s world body said. It could help FIFA market soccer-related non-fungible tokens (NFTs). The value of the World Cup sponsorship, at a third-tier regional level covering North American and European rights, was not disclosed. FIFA has set a target of earning $7 billion total revenue in its four-year commercial cycle that ends in Qatar. The deal was announced in Los Angeles where FIFA president Gianni Infantino attended a business conference. FIFA operations are turning toward North America ahead of the expanded 2026 World Cup being hosted…

Your sibling asked you to cover their rent for a couple of months while they were between jobs. Or maybe you loaned a friend a few hundred bucks for a car repair they couldn’t afford. You’d do anything to help those you love. And you did. But what should you do when they don’t pay you back? Consider these options. GENTLY APPROACH THE SUBJECT Asking a friend or family member for money back may feel uncomfortable. But sometimes a simple reminder is all it takes to jump-start debt repayment. Before reaching out, think back to the discussions you had when you offered the money: Did you make it clear that this was a loan, not a gift? Did you confirm payment terms and a deadline? Did you get the details…

A British parliamentary committee scrutinizing draft online safety legislation has invited Elon Musk to discuss his plans to buy Twitter and the changes he’s proposing for the social media platform. Parliament’s digital committee asked the Tesla CEO to give evidence about his proposals “in more depth.” Musk said it’s too early to give an answer. “I am honored and thank the Parliament for their invitation, but it would be premature at this time to accept, given that there has not yet been a shareholder vote” to approve the deal, he said by email. The committee said it’s interested in Musk’s plans, especially his intention to roll out verification for all users, which echoes its own recommendations to the U.K. government. Musk has said he wants Twitter to “ authenticate all…

California, which has a economy larger than all but four countries and where much of the world’s technological innovation is born, on Wednesday became the first state to formally begin examining how to broadly adapt to cryptocurrency and related innovations. Following a path laid out by President Joe Biden in March, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed an executive order for state agencies to move in tandem with the federal government to craft regulations for digital currencies. It also calls for officials to explore incorporating broader blockchain computer coding into the government operations. Evolving blockchain and cryptocurrency technology “is potentially an explosive creator of new companies and new jobs and new opportunities,” said Dee Dee Myers, a senior advisor to Newsom and director of the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development.…

Airbus said that its profit in the first three months of 2022 more than tripled to 1.22 billion euros ($1.28 billion), helped by an increase in aircraft deliveries as airlines recover from the worst of the pandemic. Airbus said it plans to speed up production of its A320 family of planes that compete with Boeing 737s to 75 per month by 2025. To hit that rate, Toulouse, France-based Airbus will build a second final assembly line at its plant in Mobile, Alabama, CEO Guillaume Faury told reporters. The ramp-up in A320 production builds on a current Airbus goal to build 65 A320s a month by the middle of 2023. The company hopes to take advantage of strong demand for short-and medium-range planes. Boeing is also trying to churn out more…

Google has expanded options for keeping personal information private from online searches. The company said that it will let people request that more types of content such as personal contact information like phone numbers, email and physical addresses be removed from search results. The new policy also allows the removal of other information that may pose a risk for identity theft, such as confidential log-in credentials. The company said in a statement that open access to information is vital, “but so is empowering people with the tools they need to protect themselves and keep their sensitive, personally identifiable information private.” “Privacy and online safety go hand in hand. And when you’re using the internet, it’s important to have control over how your sensitive, personally identifiable information can be found,” it…

The state of Georgia and local governments will give Rivian Automotive $1.5 billion of incentives to built a 7,500-job, $5 billion electric vehicle plant east of Atlanta, according to documents the company and state signed this week. That would be, by far, the largest incentive package Georgia has ever offered to a company and would be the 15th largest incentive package any American state has ever given a private entity according to Good Jobs First, a group critical of subsidies to private companies. Georgia Economic Development Commissioner Pat Wilson says the size of the package reflects the size of the largest single industrial announcement in Georgia history, including a pledge that the company will reach the full investment and job targets by the end of 2028, with jobs paying an…

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has laid out some bold, if still vague, plans for transforming Twitter into a place of “maximum fun” once he buys the social media platform for $44 billion and takes it private. But enacting what at the moment are little more than a mix of vague principles and technical details could be considerably more complicated than he suggests. Here’s what might happen if Musk follows through on his ideas about free speech, fighting spam and opening up the “black box” of artificial intelligence tools that amplify social media trends. FREE SPEECH TOWN SQUARE Musk’s feistiest priority — but also the one with the vaguest roadmap — is to make Twitter a “politically neutral” digital town square for the world’s discourse that allows as much free speech…

Airbnb will allow its employees to live and work almost anywhere around the world, fully embracing a remote work policy to attract staff and ensure flexibility. The San Francisco short-term-stay company said that under the new policy, employees can work from the office, home or during their travels to 170 countries. Staff will still have to meet in person for regular team meetings and events, CEO Brian Chesky said in a message to employees. Salaries won’t change if employees decide to move. Employees can spend up to three months working in each country they visit every year but they will still need a permanent address for tax and payroll reasons, which involves a“mountain of complexities,”but Chesky said the company is working on an open-source solution. The new policy will put…

US health officials this week restated their recommendation that Americans wear masks on planes, trains and buses, despite a court ruling last month that struck down a national mask mandate on public transportation. Americans age 2 and older should wear a well-fitting masks while on public transportation, including in airports and train stations, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended, citing the current spread of coronavirus and projections of future COVID-19 trends. For months, the Transportation Security Administration had been enforcing a requirement that passengers and workers wear masks. The government had repeatedly extended the mandate, and the latest one had been set to expire May 3. But a federal judge in Florida struck down the rule on April 18. The same day, the TSA said it would no…

Automaker Stellantis said it will invest $3.6 billion Canadian dollars ($2.8 billion) to upgrade two Canadian assembly plants and expand a research center as it accelerates its long-term electrification strategy. Combined with its March announcement of a joint venture battery plant with LG Energy Solution, the new investment gives Stellantis an overall investment in Ontario of CN$8.6 billion. “These investments re-affirm our long-term commitment to Canada and represent an important step as we move toward zero-emission vehicles that deliver on our customers’ desire for innovative, clean, safe and affordable mobility,” said Stellantis North America Chief Operating Officer Mark Stewart. Amsterdam-based Stellantis was formed last year with the merger of Fiat Chrysler and France’s PSA Peugeot and is the world’s fourth-largest automaker. Its long-term global strategy is to invest CN$45 billion…

Billionaire Elon Musk has strengthened the equity stake of his offer to buy Twitter with commitments of more than $7 billion from a range of investors, including Silicon Valley heavy hitters like Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison. The Thursday filing also said that Musk is in ongoing talks with other parties including former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, who is the second largest individual stakeholder in the company after Musk. Other investors include Sequoia Capital Fund, which pledged $800 million, and VyCapital, which pledged $700 million, according to a Thursday filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. But Ellison, who is also a and Tesla board member, is making the biggest contribution, pegged at $1 billion. Technology venture capitalist Ben Horowitz said his firm, known as Andreessen Horowitz or a16z, is…

A NASA climate research scientist who has spent much of her career explaining how global food production must adapt to a changing climate was awarded the World Food Prize on Thursday. Cynthia Rosenzweig, an agronomist and climatologist, was awarded the $250,000 prize in recognition of her innovative modeling of the impact of climate change on food production. She is a senior research scientist at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies and serves as adjunct senior research scientist at the Columbia Climate School at Columbia University, both based in New York. Rosenzweig, whose win was announced during a ceremony at the State Department in Washington, said she hopes it will focus attention on the need to improve food and agricultural systems to lessen the effects of climate change. “We basically…

Orkut might not have been as popular as MySpace or Tumblr back in the day, but the social network, once owned by Google, boasted an impressive 300 million users at its peak, with more than half in Brazil. Eight years after the website was shuttered, its original founder has vowed to be “building something new” under the brand for a new generation of consumers. THE HISTORY OF ORKUT First launched 18 years ago in 2004, Orkut was a social networking website that was owned and powered by Google. The network, like Facebook, MySpace, and Tumblr, was designed to help users find their old friends, maintain relationships, and start new conversations with those who had similar interests. First developed by Orkut Büyükkökten under a workplace scheme where Google allowed employees to…

Continuing its push to dramatically boost sales of electric vehicles, the Biden administration announced $3.1 billion in funding to U.S. companies that make and recycle lithium-ion batteries. The investments from last year’s $1 trillion infrastructure law are separate from an executive order President Joe Biden issued this spring, invoking the Defense Production Act boost production of lithium and other critical minerals used to power electric vehicles. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said the new program will offer grants to companies that process or recycle battery components to increase domestic supplies of a market now dominated by China and other countries. The grants will help strengthen U.S. energy independence and support Biden’s goal to have electric vehicles make up half of all vehicles sales in America by 2030, she said. Electric vehicles…

The company behind the TurboTax tax-filing program will pay $141 million to customers across the United States who were deceived by misleading promises of free tax-filing services, New York’s attorney general announced Wednesday. Under the terms of a settlement signed by the attorneys general of all 50 states, Mountain View, California-based Intuit Inc. will suspend TurboTax’s “free, free, free” ad campaign and pay restitution to nearly 4.4 million taxpayers, New York Attorney General Letitia James said. James said her investigation into Intuit was sparked by a 2019 ProPublica report that found the company was using deceptive tactics to steer low-income tax filers away from the federally supported free services for which they qualified — and toward its own commercial products, instead. “For years, Intuit misled the most vulnerable among us…

Using a helicopter to catch a falling rocket is such a complex task that Peter Beck likens it to a “supersonic ballet.” Rocket Lab, the company that Beck founded, partially pulled off the feat Tuesday as it pushes to make its small Electron rockets reusable. But after briefly catching the spent rocket, a helicopter crew was quickly forced to let it go again for safety reasons, and it fell into the Pacific Ocean where it was collected by a waiting boat. The California-based company regularly launches 18-meter (59-foot) rockets from the remote Mahia Peninsula in New Zealand to deliver satellites into space. On Tuesday, the Electron rocket was launched in the morning and sent 34 satellites into orbit before the main booster section began falling to Earth. Its descent was…

“Memory” is an interesting title for the latest Liam Neeson thriller. Do you remember the last Liam Neeson thriller? Or the one before that? Who was it that got took in that one? It began getting hard to tell these films from one another years ago, and yet they’ve kept coming. “Key & Peele” only seems more prophetic for making the actor’s name plural. “Liam Neesons” is right. He contains, and kills, multitudes. “Memory,” which opens in theaters, doesn’t much alter the formula but makes for a brutal and bleak variation on the Liam Neeson theme. It casts a broader, more interwoven noir tapestry set around the Texas borderlands, with an ensemble cast including Guy Pearce, Monica Bellucci, and Ray Stevenson. If you come to “Memory” hoping Neeson is going…

The European Union stepped up its antitrust case against Apple, accusing the company of abusing its dominant position by limiting access to technologies allowing contactless payment. The 27-nation bloc’s executive arm, the European Commission, has been investigating Apple since 2020. The commission’s preliminary view is that the firm is restricting competition by preventing mobile wallet app developers from accessing the necessary hardware and software on Apple devices. Mobile wallets rely on near-field communication, or NFC, which uses a chip in the mobile device to wirelessly communicate with a merchant’s payment terminal. The commission said Apple Pay is by far the largest NFC-based mobile wallet on the market and accused the company of refusing others access to the popular technology. “Apple has built a closed ecosystem around its devices and its…