Innholdsfortegnelse for #562 i Techlife News

Toyota’s profit fell nearly 18% in the April-June quarter from the year before, as a semiconductor shortage that has slammed the auto industry dented production at Japan’s top automaker. Toyota Motor Corp. reported Thursday a quarterly profit of 736.8 billion yen ($5.5 billion), down from 897.8 billion yen the previous year. Quarterly sales rose 7% to 8.49 trillion yen ($63 billion). Toyota officials apologized to customers who have been waiting for their cars after putting in orders. Some have waited so long the vehicle went through a model change in the meantime. Various problems apart from the chips shortage have hurt production, such as flooding in South Africa and pandemic lockdowns in Shanghai, according to the manufacturer based in Toyota City, central Japan. Electric vehicles, which need many chips, have…

More Americans applied for jobless benefits last week as the number of unemployed continues to rise modestly, though the labor market remains one of the strongest parts of the U.S. economy. Applications for jobless aid for the week ending July 30 rose by 6,000 to 260,000 from the previous week’s 254,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday. First-time applications generally reflect layoffs. The four-week average for claims, which evens out the weekly ups and downs, also rose from the previous week, to 254,750. The total number of Americans collecting jobless benefits for the week ending July 23 rose by 48,000 from the previous week, to 1,416,000. That figure has been near 50-year lows for months. The Labor Department reported that American employers posted fewer job openings in June as the economy…

The surprise deal by Senate Democrats on a slimmed-down bill to support families, boost infrastructure and fight climate change also is likely to jump-start sales of electric vehicles. The measure agreed to by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and holdout Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia would give EV buyers a $7,500 tax credit starting next year, through the end of 2032. There’s also a new $4,000 credit for those buying used EVs, a move to help the middle class go electric. But as things often go in Washington, there are a bunch of strings and asterisks. To be eligible, the electric vehicle has to be assembled in North America, and there are limits on annual income for buyers. There also are caps on the sticker prices of new EVs…

To understand the impact of surging inflation on this year’s back-to-school spending, look no further than children’s rain boots with motifs like frogs and ladybugs made by Washington Shoe Co. Spending held steady for these evergreen items even after the Kent, Washington-based business was forced to pass along 15% price increases in January to its retail clients because of soaring transportation costs. But by May, as gas and food prices also surged, shoppers abruptly shifted away from the $35 higher-end rain boots to the no-frills versions that run $5 to $10 cheaper, its CEO Karl Moehring said. “We are seeing consumers shift down,” said Moehring, noting dramatic 20% sales swings in opposite directions for both types of products. “Wages are not keeping up with inflation.” This back-to-school shopping season, parents…

A bipartisan group of senators on Wednesday proposed a bill to regulate cryptocurrencies, the latest attempt by Congress to formulate ideas on how to oversee a multibillion-dollar industry that has been racked by collapsing prices and lenders halting operations. The regulations offered by Senate Agriculture Committee chair Debbie Stabenow and top Republican member John Boozman would authorize the Commodities Futures Trading Commission to be the default regulator for cryptocurrencies. That would be in contrast with bills proposed by other members of Congress and consumer advocates, who have suggested giving the authority to the Securities and Exchange Commission. This year, crypto investors have seen prices plunge and companies crater with fortunes and jobs disappearing overnight, and some firms have been accused by federal regulators of running an illegal securities exchange. Bitcoin,…

New York City’s sprawling subway system will be fully wired for cellphone and Wi-Fi service within about 10 years under a plan approved by transit officials this week. Riders will be able to use their phones throughout the 418 miles of subway tunnels under the plan approved by Metropolitan Transportation Authority board members. The $600 million project will be built by Transit Wireless, the telecommunications company that already provides cellphone service in the city’s 281 underground subway stations. Subway riders can now use their phones to text, call or access the internet at underground stations but usually lose service once the train starts moving. Transit Wireless plans to expand service to trains in the tunnels and also to the system’s 191 aboveground stations and to 21 Staten Island Railway stations.…

Airbnb said that it earned $379 million in the second quarter on record bookings and rising rates, and the short-term rental giant announced a plan to spend up to $2 billion to buy its own stock. The results showed a reversal from losses in the second quarter of both last year and 2019. Airbnb has benefitted from the increase in travel and the exodus of workers from offices, which frees them to work from just about anywhere they can get internet access. Bookings in the second quarter were about one-fourth higher than last year and 2019. The San Francisco-based company said customers were making more international bookings. Listings away from major cities rose to nearly 50% compared with the second quarter of 2019, although Airbnb said urban listings grew compared…

China blocked imports of citrus, fish and other foods from Taiwan in retaliation for a visit by a top American lawmaker, Nancy Pelosi, but has avoided disrupting one of the world’s most important technology and manufacturing relationships. The two sides, which split in 1949 after a civil war, have no official relations but multibillion-dollar business ties, especially in the flow of Taiwanese-made processor chips needed by Chinese factories that assemble the world’s smartphones and other electronics. They built that business while Beijing threatened for decades to enforce the ruling Communist Party’s claim to the island by attacking. Two-way trade soared 26% last year to $328.3 billion. Taiwan, which produces half the world’s processor chips and has technology the mainland can’t match, said sales to Chinese factories rose 24.4% to $104.3…

The virtual cat hero from the new video game sensation “Stray” doesn’t just wind along rusted pipes, leap over unidentified sludge and decode clues in a seemingly abandoned city. The daring orange tabby is helping real world cats as well. Thanks to online fundraising platforms, gamers are playing “Stray” while streaming live for audiences to raise money for animal shelters and other cat-related charities. Annapurna Interactive, the game’s publisher, also promoted “Stray” by offering two cat rescue and adoption agencies copies of the game to raffle off and renting out a New York cat cafe. Livestreaming game play for charity isn’t new, but the resonance “Stray” quickly found from cat lovers is unusual. It was the fourth most watched and broadcast game on the day it launched on Twitch, the…

More than 700 Amazon warehouse workers in England staged a protest Thursday in a dispute over pay, in the latest sign of workplace friction stoked by Britain’s cost of living crisis and a growing discontent among employees over wage and working conditions. The GMB union said employees at the facility in Tilbury, Essex, east of London, stopped work after the ecommerce giant offered to raise salaries by 35 pence (42 cents) an hour. The union said workers want a raise of 2 pounds to better match the demands of their job and cope with soaring inflation. Amazon doesn’t recognize the union, which likely has one of the highest number of members at the Tilbury location out of its 28 U.K. facilities. “Amazon is one of the most profitable companies on…

Boeing has cleared a key hurdle with federal regulators and could soon resume deliveries of its large 787 airliner, which has been plagued by a series of production issues since late 2020, a person familiar with the matter said. The Federal Aviation Administration notified Boeing that it would approve the company’s process for validating fixes to each plane before they are delivered to airline customers, said the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a decision that has not been publicly announced. The FAA declined to comment and referred inquiries to Boeing. In a statement, Boeing said only, “We will continue to work transparently with the FAA and our customers towards resuming 787 deliveries.” Approval to resume deliveries would be a boost for Boeing, which collects a big…

On a recent morning inside Chalmers School of Excellence on Chicago’s West Side, five preschool and kindergarten students finished up drawings. Four staffers, including a teacher and a tutor, chatted with them about colors and shapes. The summer program offers the kind of one-on-one support parents love. But behind the scenes, Principal Romian Crockett worries the school is becoming precariously small. Chalmers lost almost a third of its enrollment during the pandemic, shrinking to 215 students. In Chicago, COVID-19 worsened declines that preceded the virus: Predominantly Black neighborhoods like Chalmers’ North Lawndale, long plagued by disinvestment, have seen an exodus of families over the past decade. The number of small schools like Chalmers is growing in many American cities as public school enrollment declines. More than one in five New…

Apple’s profit slipped during the past quarter, but the world’s largest technology company is holding up better than many of its peers as the economy teeters on the edge of a recession. While grappling with manufacturing headaches and inflation pressures that have vexed a wide range of businesses, Apple saw its profit for the April-June period decline by 10% while revenue edged up 2%. Both figures were better than analysts projected. The results announced for Apple’s fiscal third quarter weren’t a shock. That’s because Apple had already warned that its revenue would be depressed by as much as $8 billion because of supply chain problems that have been compounded by pandemic-related shutdowns in Chinese factories that make iPhones and other Apple products. That scenario played out as expected in Apple’s…

Elon Musk’s wealthy high tech allies don’t seem too happy about receiving subpoenas from Twitter as part of the company’s legal battle with the Tesla CEO. San Francisco-based Twitter is suing Musk in Delaware in an attempt to get him to complete his $44 billion acquisition of the social media company, a deal Musk is trying to get out of. According to a report from The Washington Post, Twitter’s legal team asked for information about a host of tech investors and entrepreneurs connected to Musk in a wide-ranging subpoena. Twitter declined to comment. According to the Post, the subpoena includes “extensive requests for communications, including ‘checklists, timelines, presentations, decks, organizational calls, meetings, notes, recordings’ related to the deal’s financing.’” Well-known venture capitalists included in the subpoena, according to the report,…

Views from a tower in Portugal, gondolas in Venice, beaches in the Bahamas — as you scroll through your social media feeds, it seems like everyone you’ve ever met is on a picturesque vacation this summer. Compared to the last two years, 2022 is seeing a steep increase in travel, especially international, and it may feel impossible to keep up. The number of outbound international U.S. flights increased about 97% year-over-year from April 2021 to April 2022, according to U.S. International Air Travel Statistics. Airbnb data from May 2022 also showed an all-time high in long-term stay bookings, with U.S. travelers gravitating toward Italy, Mexico, Costa Rica and the Bahamas as well as domestic beach destinations. If you’re not planning to travel this year, hearing about other peoples’ vacations might…

The Transportation Department is proposing to require airlines to offer passengers a refund if their flight schedule is changed significantly or the airline makes major changes to their itinerary. The proposed rule announced Wednesday would require airlines to give refunds if their departure or arrival time changes by three hours or more for a domestic flight or at least six hours for an international one. Refunds would also be due if the airline changes the passenger’s departure or arrival airport, adds stops in their itinerary, or causes “a significant downgrade” in the travel experience by switching to a different type of plane. The rule would apply even for travelers who buy nonrefundable tickets, which usually cost less and are favored by many leisure travelers. The proposal comes after the department…

Chinese e-commerce firm Alibaba Group Holding on Thursday beat market expectations for revenue in its quarter ended June, even as revenue was nearly flat and the company continues to grapple with the fallout from increased regulatory scrutiny and slowing economy growth. Alibaba reported revenues of 205.6 billion ($30.4 billion) for its quarter ended June, a 1% decrease from the same time last year. It was the first time that the company reported a contraction in sales. That was still better than the average analyst estimate of $30.09 billion, according to FactSet. Net income plunged 50% to 22.7 billion yuan ($3.4 billion). Excluding one-time charges, adjusted earnings per ADS totaled $1.75, topping the average analyst estimate of $1.60 per share. Its U.S.-listed shares rose about 5% in premarket trading Thursday. Alibaba…

As Apple edges closer to the release of the Apple Watch Series 8 and a new rugged version for athletes, developers are testing watchOS 9. The update includes a host of features that will transform how you work out and communicate, making the Apple Watch even better. A SLEW OF NEW WATCH FACES Taking to the stage at the virtual Worldwide Developers Conference back in June, Jeff Williams, Apple’s chief operating officer, said that users around the world had fallen in love with the Apple Watch for “helping them stay connected to those they love, be more active throughout the day, and better manage their health. This fall, watchOS 9 takes the Apple Watch experience to the next level,” he added, allow users to capture more “scientifically validated insights across…

Uber’s effort to meld its pioneering ride-hailing service with food and freight delivery showed progress during the past quarter even though the company sustained a huge loss stemming from a sharp decline in its outside investments. Looking past Uber’s second-quarter loss of $2.6 billion announced Tuesday, Wall Street celebrated a significant milestone that raised hopes that Uber is on the verge of becoming a self-sustaining business. The good news arrived this week in the form of a key metric known as free cash flow. Uber generated $382 million in cash during the April-June period, the first quarter in the company’s 13-year history that it didn’t hemorrhage money. Uber has now been profitable for four consecutive quarters under a financial yardstick called EBIDTA, or “adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and…

The House passed a $280 billion package to boost the semiconductor industry and scientific research in a bid to create more high-tech jobs in the United States and help it better compete with international rivals, namely China. The House approved the bill by a solid margin of 243-187, sending the measure to President Joe Biden to be signed into law and providing the White House with a major domestic policy victory. Twenty-four Republicans voted for the legislation. “Today, the House passed a bill that will make cars cheaper, appliances cheaper, and computers cheaper,” Biden said. “It will lower the costs of every day goods. And it will create high-paying manufacturing jobs across the country and strengthen U.S. leadership in the industries of the future at the same time.” As the…

Robinhood Markets said it’s cutting nearly a quarter of its workforce, as crashing cryptocurrency prices and a turbulent stock market keep more customers off its trading app. CEO Vlad Tenev said the company, whose easy-to-use app helped bring a new generation of investors to the market, will reduce its headcount by about 23%. The reduction of about 780 jobs follows another round of layoffs announced earlier this year, which cut 9% of its workforce and “did not go far enough” in cutting costs, Tenev said in a post on the company’s blog. The highest inflation in 40 years, and sharp hikes in interest rates by the Federal Reserve to combat it, have sent prices reeling across all kinds of financial markets, particularly those popular among Robinhood customers. Bitcoin has fallen…

Hey, casting agents, listen up. Oliver Jackson-Cohen is interested in lighter roles. That doesn’t mean he hasn’t enjoyed the darker, sometimes scarier fare he’s mostly appeared in throughout the past few years — but his mother says he needs a break. Mom’s commentary came last year when Jackson-Cohen arrived in Vancouver to film the new series “ Surface “ now streaming weekly on Apple TV+. She said to him, “’You’re not going to play one of your sad boys, are you?’ “I went, ‘What?’ She said, ‘You’re always (expletive) sad. Do something light that I can go and enjoy watching,’” Jackson-Cohen laughed. “So that sort of stuck with me.” It’s been a busy few years. Jackson-Cohen’s recent career highlights include Netflix’s “The Haunting of Hill House” series and its follow-up…