Innholdsfortegnelse for #568 i Techlife News

The European Union’s executive arm proposed new legislation that would force manufacturers to ensure that devices connected to the internet meet cybersecurity standards, making the 27-nation bloc less vulnerable to attacks. The EU said a ransomware attack takes place every 11 seconds, and the global annual cost of cybercrime is estimated at 5.5 trillion euros in 2021. In Europe alone, cyberattacks cost between 180 and 290 billion euros each year, according to EU officials. The European Commission said an increase of cyberattacks was witnessed during the coronavirus pandemic and that Russia’s war in Ukraine has raised concerns that European energy infrastructure could also be targeted amid a global energy crunch. The law, proposed as the Cyber Resilience Act, aims to remove from the EU market all products with digital elements…

Americans have grown fond of “buy now, pay later” services, but the “pay later” part is becoming increasingly difficult for some borrowers. Buy now, pay later loans allow users to pay for items such new sneakers, electronics, or luxury goods in installments. Companies such as Affirm, Afterpay, Klarna and PayPal have built popular financial products around these short-term loans, particularly for younger borrowers, who are fearful of never-ending credit card debt. Now, as the industry racks up customers, delinquencies are climbing. Inflation is squeezing consumers, making it tougher to pay off debts. Some borrowers don’t budget properly, particularly if they are persuaded to take out multiple loans, while others may have been credit risks to begin with. “You have an industry with a higher concentration of subprime borrowers in a…

In a universe of cloud computing, northern Virginia might be in a perpetual fog. More of the data centers that feed the cloud are clustered in the region outside the nation’s capital than anywhere else in the world. As cloud computing — which enables data storage and other services to be delivered over the internet — continues its exponential increase, the appetite for new data centers continues to grow. And increasingly, communities that abut the centers are complaining about their new neighbors, mostly about the noise from constantly whirring fans needed to cool the computers and servers warehoused within. “It’s just a constant whir at a frequency that’s obnoxious,” said Dale Browne, president of the Great Oak Homeowners Association. Residents there led a protest recently outside a nearby data center…

California is suing Amazon, accusing the company of violating the state’s antitrust laws by stifling competition and engaging in practices that push sellers to maintain higher prices on products on other sites. The 84-page lawsuit filed Wednesday in San Francisco Superior Court mirrors another complaint filed last year by the District of Columbia, which was dismissed by a district judge earlier this year and is now going through an appeals process. But officials in California believe they won’t encounter a similar fate, partly due to information collected during a more than two-year investigation that involved subpoenas and interviews with sellers, Amazon’s competitors as well as current and former employees at the company. In the lawsuit, California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office said Amazon used contract provisions to effectively bar sellers…

Chipmaker Micron’s planned $15 billion investment in a new factory in the company’s hometown of Boise will help protect the United States from the vulnerabilities of a globalized semiconductor market, U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said. “It is time to get America making things again, with American parts and American labor,” Granholm told a crowd of about 250 guests and Micron workers invited to a tent-covered dirt field for a ceremonial groundbreaking. The event included setting off a ground-clearing explosion far from the crowd that emitted red, white and blue smoke. The U.S. and Europe are pushing aggressively to build chipmaking capacity and reduce reliance on producers that are now mostly based in Asia. Semiconductor businesses have also been trying to diversify their operations to avoid bottlenecks caused by problems…

When it came time to showcase its electric Chevrolet Equinox SUV to the public this year, General Motors decided against doing so at the big Detroit auto show, as it typically would have done in the past. Instead, it unveiled the Equinox six days earlier. GM’s decision symbolized just how much smaller this year’s auto show will be, with few new model debuts, less-glitzy displays, fewer journalists and possibly lower attendance. Though the pandemic is partly to blame, larger forces are at play, too: Automakers have figured out that new models can make a bigger splash when they’re unveiled to a digital audience on a day where they don’t have to share the spotlight with their rivals. Not to mention that making a debut at an auto show can be…

California Gov. Gavin Newsom wants voters to reject a new tax on rich people that would pay for more electric vehicles in the nation’s most populous state, warning in a new statewide TV ad that a measure on the ballot this November won’t help the environment but is instead “one company’s cynical scheme to grab a huge taxpayer subsidy.” Proposition 30 would raise taxes on people who make more than $2 million per year. It would generate up to $5 billion in new tax money each year, and most of that money would go to programs that help people buy electric cars and install charging stations. A smaller amount would go to wildfire prevention response and prevention programs. The ballot measure’s campaign is paid for by the ride-hailing company Lyft.…

Software company Adobe is buying online design company Figma in an approximately $20 billion cash-and-stock deal. Figma, founded in 2012, allows those who design interactive mobile and web applications to collaborate through multi-player workflows, sophisticated design systems and a rich developer ecosystem. The companies said that Figma’s web-based, multi-player capabilities will accelerate the delivery of Adobe’s creative cloud technologies on the web, making the creative process more productive and accessible to more people. San Jose, California-based Adobe sells software for creating, publishing and promoting content, and managing documents. “With Adobe’s amazing innovation and expertise, especially in 3D, video, vector, imaging and fonts, we can further reimagine end-to-end product design in the browser, while building new tools and spaces to empower customers to design products faster and more easily,” Figma co-founder…

Samsung Electronics is shifting away from fossil fuels and aiming to entirely power its global operations with clean electricity by 2050, a challenging goal that experts say could be hampered by South Korea’s modest climate change commitments. South Korea-based Samsung is a top producer of computer memory chips and smartphones and the second biggest energy consumer behind Walmart among hundreds of global companies that have joined the “RE100” campaign to get 100% of electricity from renewable sources like wind or solar power. In announcing its target Thursday the company said it aims to achieve net zero carbon emissions across its mobile device, television and consumer electronics divisions by 2030, and across all global operations including semiconductors by 2050. It plans to invest 7 trillion won ($5 billion) through 2030 on…

Bill Gates says the global hunger crisis is so immense that food aid cannot fully address the problem. What’s also needed, Gates argues, are the kinds of innovations in farming technology that he has long funded to try to reverse the crisis documented in a report released this week by The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Gates points, in particular, to a breakthrough he calls “magic seeds,” crops engineered to adapt to climate change and resist agricultural pests. The Gates Foundation also released a map that models how climate change will likely affect growing conditions for crops in various countries to highlight the urgent need for action. In assigning technology a pre-eminent role in addressing the world’s food crisis, Gates puts himself at odds with critics who say his ideas…

Twitter’s former security chief told Congress Tuesday there was “at least one agent” from China’s intelligence service on Twitter’s payroll and that the company knowingly allowed India to add agents to the company roster as well, potentially giving those nations access to sensitive data about users. These were some of the troubling revelations from Peiter “Mudge” Zatko, a respected cybersecurity expert and Twitter whistleblower who appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee to lay out his allegations against the company. Zatko told lawmakers that the social media platform is plagued by weak cyber defenses that make it vulnerable to exploitation by “ teenagers, thieves and spies” and put the privacy of its users at risk. “I am here today because Twitter leadership is misleading the public, lawmakers, regulators and even its…

A North Carolina-based semiconductor company announced it will build a $5 billion manufacturing plant in its home state to produce silicon carbide wafers, which is emerging as a favored part for renewable energy products. Wolfspeed Inc. said it plans to create 1,800 new jobs by the end of 2030 at a location in Chatham County, about 45 miles (72 kilometers) southwest of its Durham headquarters. Wolfspeed could benefit from $775 million in cash incentives, infrastructure improvements and other sweeteners from North Carolina and local governments and the state legislature to build on the outskirts of Siler City, according to a state document. The lion’s share would be in the form of local property tax rebates. A state committee voted to award Wolfspeed up to $76 million over 20 years if…

General Motors’ self-driving car company announced plans to expand a robotaxi service that recently launched in California into new markets in Arizona and Texas before the end of this year. Cruise, a San Francisco startup that General Motors bought six years ago, told an audience at an investor conference that an autonomous ride-hailing service that began charging San Francisco passengers in June will make its debut in Phoenix and Austin, Texas, within the next 90 days. As it already has been doing in parts of San Francisco during night-time hours, Cruise’s ride-hailing service will transport passengers in vehicles that won’t have a safety driver in them to take control if the robotic technology malfunctions. Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt didn’t provide additional details about the ride-hailing services in Phoenix and Austin.…

“Untitled Amblin Film,” read Gabriel LaBelle’s audition sheet. Director “TBD.” LaBelle, a 19-year-old actor from Vancouver with a handful of credits in TV and film, taped his audition and sent it off, not thinking too much about it. A couple days later, he began to hear whispers. That movie? It’s a Steven Spielberg film. And the part? Playing Steven Spielberg. LaBelle didn’t get a call back until three months later — and even then he didn’t really know what he was in for. It wasn’t until LaBelle was cast and received the full script that it dawned on him. He was the lead of Spielberg’s “The Fabelmans,” playing a fictionalized younger version of the legendary director. “When I was auditioning, the character’s name was Teenage Sammy — I thought as…

A hard plastic case that exploded on the campus of Northeastern University in Boston causing minor injuries to a staff member contained a rambling note that railed against virtual reality and also referenced Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, a law enforcement official said Wednesday. Investigators are still trying to identify the motive behind the Tuesday evening explosion and are working to understand why the package was specifically sent to Northeastern, the official said. Investigators are also trying to determine the specific mechanism of the device and whether the package contained any gunpowder, the official added. The official could not discuss details of the investigation publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. The official described the case as a “Pelican-style” case. Pelican is a company that makes hard…

Roger Bennett remembers calling his father in Liverpool, England, and having his father hold the phone next to the television so he could experience his beloved Everton in the FA Cup semifinals. To say those days are long, thankfully gone, is an understatement. Technology, streaming packages, and the value of sports programming have allowed fans to view their favorite teams or leagues live or on demand. “We are living in a golden age. You could make a case for soccer that there’s nowhere better to follow or be a fan than the United States just because of the sheer volume of games broadcast and accessible,” said Bennett, the co-host of the “Men in Blazers” podcast. With streaming services eager to acquire live content, professional sports leagues in the U.S. are…

Microsoft’s $69 billion deal to buy video game company Activision Blizzard faces an in-depth antitrust investigation in Britain after the tech company refused to offer proposals to ease competition concerns. Britain’s Competition and Markets Authority said Thursday that it was referring the blockbuster deal for more scrutiny under a so-called phase 2 investigation. The watchdog said that based on the available information, the deal “may be expected to result in a substantial lessening of competition” in the United Kingdom. The all-cash deal, which is set to be the largest in the history of the tech industry, is facing scrutiny from competition regulators around the world. It would give Microsoft, maker of the Xbox console and gaming system, control of popular game franchises such as Call of Duty, World of Warcraft…

It’s a big year for Apple Watch. Not only does September mark the release of watchOS 9, the next iteration of the wearable technology’s operating system, but Apple is treating us to three new models: an updated Apple Watch SE and Series 8 and an all-new Ultra variant. UPDATING THE APPLE WATCH LINEUP This year, where the Apple Watch is usually an afterthought in an iPhone-centred event, the reverse was true at Apple’s September conference. The company kicked off its Far Out event by announcing the all-new Apple Watch Series 8 and a refresh of its SE variant, offering “groundbreaking technology and performance” and new features. The Series 8 is perhaps less impressive an upgrade than in previous years. Still, the device further refines the Apple Watch experience, building on…

A global search for alternative sources to Russian energy during the war in Ukraine has refocused attention on smaller, easier-to-build nuclear power stations, which proponents say could provide a cheaper, more efficient alternative to older model mega-plants. U.K.-based Rolls-Royce SMR says its small modular reactors, or SMRs, are much cheaper and quicker to get running than standard plants, delivering the kind of energy security that many nations are seeking. France already relies on nuclear power for a majority of its electricity, and Germany kept the option of reactivating two nuclear plants it will shut down at the end of the year as Russia cuts natural gas supplies. While Rolls-Royce SMR and its competitors have signed deals with countries from Britain to Poland to start building the stations, they are many…

Toyota largely pioneered hybrid vehicles, and its extensive lineup of gas-saving models today is a testament to that. But it’s taken a while for Toyota to finally come out with its first mass-market electric vehicle: the all-new 2023 Toyota bZ4X. This is a small SUV that’s about the same size as the brand’s RAV4 and offers many of the same appealing qualities such as a comfortable ride and available all-wheel drive. However, the bZ4X is taking trails that have already been blazed by other automakers. One key rival shoppers should consider is the Volkswagen ID.4. This is VW’s first electric SUV and it too promises to deliver familiar brand traits for a new electrified world. Which battery-powered SUV is the better buy? Experts compared them to find out. RANGE &…

U.S. electric vehicle maker Rivian is partnering with Mercedes-Benz to build a factory in Europe that will produce electric vans for both companies. The companies announced a memorandum of understanding and plan to create a joint-venture to create the factory within a few years. The companies are looking to produce two large vans, one based on VAN.EA, the electric-only platform of Mercedes-Benz Vans, and the other based on the second generation electric-van, Rivian Light Van platform. The agreement comes two years after Amazon said it would buy 1,800 electric delivery vans from Mercedes-Benz. That was one year after Amazon, founded by Jeff Bezos, took a 20% stake in Rivian. Now Rivian needs to scale up rapidly to prove to investors that it can produce enough vehicles to satisfy demand. It…

A top court largely rejected Google’s appeal of a record European Union antitrust fine imposed for throttling competition and reducing consumer choice through the dominance of its mobile Android operating system. It marks another win for EU regulators taking a global lead in controlling the power of big tech companies. The European Court of Justice’s General Court mostly confirmed a 2018 decision by the EU’s executive Commission to slap Google with a fine of more than 4 billion euros ($3.99 billion). “In order better to reflect the gravity and duration of the infringement,” it’s appropriate to give Google a fine of 4.125 billion euros, the court said. That’s slightly lower than the original 4.34 billion euro penalty, with the court saying its reasoning differed “in certain respects” from the commission’s.…