Innholdsfortegnelse for #570 i Techlife News

Soon enough, a bedside Amazon device might know whether you’re sleeping — or not. The e-commerce and tech giant said it will start selling a device later this year that can track sleeping patterns without a wristband. The device, called Halo Rise, will use no-contact sensors and artificial intelligence to measure a user’s movement and breathing patterns, allowing the device to track sleep stages during the night, the Seattle-based company said. Amazon said the device “does not include cameras or microphones,” and will go for $139.99. The Halo Rise would be the latest device in Amazon’s Halo line, which includes a fitness tracker that can track physical activity and sleeping patterns. Amazon noted the device can connect with its virtual assistant, Alexa, and allow users to wake up to their…

A former graduate student has been convicted of spying for the Chinese government by gathering information on scientists and engineers in the U.S. who had knowledge about aerospace technology and other technology. A federal jury in Chicago convicted Ji Chaoqun, 31, of conspiracy to act as an agent of China’s Ministry of State Security without notifying the U.S. attorney general, acting as a spy in the U.S., and lying on a government form about his contacts with foreign agencies. The jury, which deliberated for about six hours over two days, acquitted Ji of two other wire fraud counts alleging that he lied to the U.S. Army when he applied to become a reservist in 2016, the Chicago Tribune reported. Ji, a Chinese national who has been in custody since he…

Civil rights lawyers and Democratic senators are pushing for legislation that would limit U.S. law enforcement agencies’ ability to buy cellphone tracking tools to follow people’s whereabouts, including back years in time, and sometimes without a search warrant. Concerns about police use of the tool known as “Fog Reveal” raised in an investigation published earlier this month also surfaced in a Federal Trade Commission hearing three weeks ago. Police agencies have been using the platform to search hundreds of billions of records gathered from 250 million mobile devices, and hoover up people’s geolocation data to assemble so-called “patterns of life,” according to thousands of pages of records about the company. Sold by Virginia-based Fog Data Science LLC, Fog Reveal has been used since at least 2018 in criminal investigations ranging…

Rihanna will take center stage at February’s Super Bowl halftime show. The singer, who declined to perform in the 2019 Super Bowl halftime show out of solidarity with Colin Kaepernick, will headline the 2023 Super Bowl, the NFL announced Sunday (25) along with Jay-Z’s Roc Nation and Apple Music. Rihanna posted an image on Instagram of an arm outstretched holding an NFL football. “Rihanna is a generational talent, a woman of humble beginnings who has surpassed expectations at every turn,” said Jay-Z, whose Roc Nation is an executive producer of the show, in a statement. “A person born on the small island of Barbados who became one of the most prominent artists ever. Self-made in business and entertainment.” The Super Bowl will take place at State Farm Stadium in Glendale,…

A prototype, all-electric airplane took its first flight Tuesday morning in central Washington state. The Seattle Times reports that if the Federal Aviation Administration eventually certifies the small airplane to carry passengers, it could become the first all-electric commercial airplane. The plane, built by startup Eviation, was built to carry nine passengers and up two pilots and took off from Moses Lake, Washington, at 7:10 a.m. Tuesday. The plane landed eight minutes later. The company’s goal is to show such electric planes are viable as commuter aircraft flying at an altitude of about 15,000 feet (4,572 meters). The plane, designed by engineers in Washington state and Israel, is powered by 21,500 small Tesla-style battery cells.…

Armed with a new law that boosts U.S. support for computer chip manufacturing, Vice President Kamala Harris is seeking new investments and partnerships as she sits down with Japanese technology executives. With China investing in computer chips of its own, the U.S. is working to solidify its technology relationships with South Korea, Taiwan and Japan. Legislation signed by President Joe Biden, known as the CHIPS and Science Act, includes $52 billion for grants and incentives for semiconductor companies, plus a 25% tax credit when they invest in U.S. facilities. There’s also about $200 billion over the next decade to support research programs. Jimmy Goodrich, vice president for global policy at the Semiconductor Industry Association, said “there’s no one country or company that can do everything on its own.” When it…

Abigail E. Disney has been critical of the company that bears her name before. But for the first time, Disney, the granddaughter of co-founder Roy O. Disney, has put her views into the medium the Mouse House was built on: a movie. In the new documentary “The American Dream and Other Fairy Tales,” Disney argues that the Walt Disney Co. has lost its moral compass. As one of the company’s most prominent and outspoken critics — one who happens to be from within the Disney family — Disney lays out an unflattering portrait of the company, particularly in regard to pay inequity and the struggles of some theme park employees to sustain their families on minimum-wage salaries. “They have gone the way of most every other company in this country.…

A sprawling disinformation network originating in Russia sought to use hundreds of fake social media accounts and dozens of sham news websites to spread Kremlin talking points about the invasion of Ukraine, Meta revealed this week. The company, which owns Facebook and Instagram, said it identified and disabled the operation before it was able to gain a large audience. Nonetheless, Facebook said it was the largest and most complex Russian propaganda effort that it has found since the invasion began. The operation involved more than 60 websites created to mimic legitimate news sites including The Guardian newspaper in the United Kingdom and Germany’s Der Spiegel. Instead of the actual news reported by those outlets, however, the fake sites contained links to Russian propaganda and disinformation about Ukraine. More than 1,600…

Amazon said it’s raising its average starting pay for frontline workers from $18 to $19 a hour, a boost that could help it attract more employees in a tight labor market as the holiday season approaches. Amazon said that beginning in October, warehouse and transportation workers would earn between $16 and $26 an hour, depending on their position and location in the U.S. The minimum wage at the Seattle-based e-commerce company, which employed roughly 1.5 million workers as of the end of June, will remain $15 an hour. The pay raise follows an announcement from Amazon that it will hold a Prime-Day like holiday shopping event in October, the first time it is having a major sales drive twice in a year, following its Prime Day deals event in July.…

Australia’s federal and state governments called for Optus to pay for replacing identification documents including passports and driver’s licenses to avoid identity fraud after 9.8 million of the telecommunications company’s customers had personal data stolen by computer hackers. The Australian government has blamed lax cybersecurity at Optus for last week’s unprecedented breach of current and former customers’ personal information. Most at risk of identity theft are the 2.8 million customers who had driver’s license and passport numbers stolen. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese rejected opposition lawmakers’ calls for the government to waive the costs of replacing compromised Optus customers’ passports. “We believe that Optus should pay, not taxpayers,” Albanese told Parliament. Foreign Minister Penny Wong wrote to Optus CEO Kelly Bayer Rosmarin requesting her “earliest confirmation” that the Sydney-based company would…

Amazon said that next month it will hold a second Prime Day-like shopping event, making it the latest major retailer to offer holiday deals earlier this year to entice cautious consumers struggling with tighter budgets. During the Oct. 11-12 event, Amazon Prime members will get early access to discounted items. The “Prime Early Access Sale” follows Amazon’s annual Prime Day in July. The Seattle-based e-commerce giant has long used these kinds of sales events to lure people into its Prime membership, which offers faster shipping and better deals for $139 a year. But October’s event will be the first time it has held a major sales drive twice in a year. Amazon’s retail business had slowed down in recent months. And the shopping bonanza signals a recognition that it needs…

Apple Inc. will make its iPhone 14 in India, the company said this week, as manufacturers shift production from China amid geopolitical tensions and pandemic restrictions that have disrupted supply chains for many industries. “The new iPhone 14 lineup introduces groundbreaking new technologies and important safety capabilities. We’re excited to be manufacturing iPhone 14 in India,” Apple said in a statement. Apple unveiled its latest line-up of iPhones earlier this month. They will have improved cameras, faster processors and longer lasting batteries at the same prices as last year’s models. India is the world’s second-largest smartphone market after China but Apple iPhone sales have struggled to capture a large share of the market against cheaper smartphones from competitors. The announcement from the Cupertino, California-based company dovetails with Prime Minister Narendra…

General Motors says it will spend $760 million to renovate its transmission factory in Toledo, Ohio, so it can build drive lines for electric vehicles. It’s the first GM engine or transmission plant to begin the long transition from internal combustion engines to electric vehicles. The company has a goal of making only electric passenger vehicles by 2035. The move will keep the jobs of about 1,500 hourly and salaried workers at the Toledo plant, which now makes four transmissions used in pickup trucks and many other GM internal combustion vehicles. No new hiring is expected. “This investment helps build job security for our Toledo team for years to come, and is the next step on our journey to an all-electric future,” Gerald Johnson, executive vice president of global manufacturing…

Government lawyers used airline executives’ own words in trying Tuesday to persuade a federal judge to kill a partnership between American Airlines and JetBlue Airways. The government argued that the deal is, in effect, a merger that will cost consumers $700 million a year in higher fares. It said JetBlue’s pending purchase of Spirit Airlines will make matters even worse for travelers. JetBlue CEO Robin Hayes was the first witness in the trial in federal district court in Boston over the federal government’s antitrust lawsuit against American and JetBlue. The airlines are coordinating schedules and sharing revenue from flights in the Northeast, including New York-area airports. Hayes was quizzed about his own previous statements criticizing joint ventures involving other airlines and a 2019 comment that the airline industry “has never…

For more than half a century, ABC, CBS and NBC have aired evening newscasts each weeknight on television. This fall, the competition has spread to another medium. The launch of John Dickerson’s “CBS News Prime Time” in September means that all three news divisions have unique streaming newscasts at night, a nod to the future and bid to reach young people who aren’t watching television at dinnertime. Dickerson’s newscast debuted nearly a year after NBC’s “Top Story” with Tom Llamas. ABC’s “Live Prime” with Linsey Davis started in February 2020. Each streams live for at least an hour starting at 7 p.m. Eastern and are repeated later in the evening. All can be seen for free. “The revolution will not be televised,” Davis quipped. “It will be streamed.” She and…

Juan Pinon, an electrical engineer in McAllen, Texas, struggled with credit card debt for years. It wasn’t until he confided in his sister that he began to turn things around. “It just so happened that one day I opened up to my sister, and she confessed to me that she had debt issues and was able to get out through professional help,” Pinon says. Getting a vetted referral to a nonprofit credit counseling agency and encouragement from someone he trusted convinced him to take action. Pinon enrolled in the agency’s debt management program and paid off about $50,000 in less than three years. It’s difficult to watch people we care about struggle with debt. Debt can disrupt their financial and personal lives, as well as the lives of those around…

Doreen Bogdan-Martin of the United States was elected Thursday to head the U.N.’s telecommunications agency, winning a U.S.-Russia face-off for the leadership of a key global agency that sets guideposts for radio, internet and television communications — ending a race that has been overshadowed by geopolitics in the wake of Russia’s war in Ukraine. Envoys from the 193 member states of the Geneva-based International Telecommunications Union, selected Bogdan-Martin over lone rival Rashid Ismailov of Russia at the latest meeting in the Romanian capital of its policy-making body — which meets every four years. Bogdan-Martin, who will begin her four-year term as ITU secretary-general on Jan. 1, is a 29-year ITU veteran and the current director of its telecommunication development bureau. Her career began in the U.S. Commerce Department. She won…

With roosters crowing in the background as he speaks from the crowded refugee camp in Bangladesh that’s been his home since 2017, Maung Sawyeddollah, 21, describes what happened when violent hate speech and disinformation targeting the Rohingya minority in Myanmar began to spread on Facebook. “We were good with most of the people there. But some very narrow minded and very nationalist types escalated hate against Rohingya on Facebook,” he said. “And the people who were good, in close communication with Rohingya. changed their mind against Rohingya and it turned to hate.” For years, Facebook, now called Meta Platforms Inc., pushed the narrative that it was a neutral platform in Myanmar that was misused by malicious people, and that despite its efforts to remove violent and hateful material, it unfortunately…

Apple Music has been announced as the new primary sponsor for the Super Bowl halftime show in a deal representing a $50 million investment and a major departure for the world’s biggest tech brand as it continues to expand into new areas and bolster its services revenue. A NEW SUPER BOWL HALFTIME SHOW SPONSOR In a move unexpected by many, NFL took to social media to confirm in late September that Apple Music was the new sponsor of the Super Bowl Halftime Show, replacing Pepsi. The new multi-year partnership brings together the Super Bowl Halftime Show, the most-watched musical performance of the year, with Apple Music, which has a catalog of more than 90 million songs and a growing stronghold in the music streaming sector. Indeed, Apple was the pioneer…

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said that stablecoins will need greater regulation as they become more widely used by consumers. Powell also said, in virtual remarks to a conference on digital finance in Paris, that the Fed hasn’t yet decided on whether to proceed with a digital dollar. The Fed’s sharp interest rate increases this year, Powell said, have contributed to the collapse of some stablecoins and big drops in the value of cryptocurrencies, a phenomenon some traders have dubbed “crypto winter.” Stablecoins are digital tokens pegged to the value of traditional financial instruments, often the dollar. In May, the stablecoin TerraUSD collapsed, wiping out $40 billion investor funds. Powell said that higher interest rates have revealed the “significant structural issues” that exist in decentralized finance, a broad term that…

Attention, potential car buyers: New electric vehicle charging stations are on their way to highway locations near you. All 50 states received final approval this week to begin construction on a first nationwide network of EV charging stations that places one roughly every 50 miles (80 kilometers) along interstate highways, part of the Biden administration’s plan to spur widespread adoption of zero-emission cars. The Transportation Department said it had OK’d EV charger plans from a last set of 17 states, triggering the release of $1.5 billion in federal funds to all jurisdictions nationwide — or $5 billion over five years — to install or upgrade chargers along 75,000 miles (120,000 kilometers) of highway from coast to coast, with a goal of 500,000 EV chargers nationwide. Plans for the other 33…

Tesla CEO Elon Musk is scheduled to spend the next few days with lawyers for Twitter, answering questions ahead of an October trial that will determine whether he must carry through with his $44 billion agreement to acquire the social platform after attempting to back out of the deal. The deposition, planned for Monday, Tuesday and a possible extension on Wednesday, will not be public. As of Sunday evening it was not clear whether Musk will appear in person or by video. The trial is set to begin October 17 in Delaware Chancery Court, where it’s scheduled to last just five days. Musk, the world’s richest man, agreed in April to buy Twitter and take it private, offering $54.20 a share and vowing to loosen the company’s policing of content…

TikTok could face a 27 million-pound ($29 million) fine in the U.K. over a possible breach of U.K. data protection law by failing to protect children’s privacy when they are using the video-sharing platform. The U.K. Information Commissioner’s Office said that it has issued the social media company a legal document that precedes a potential fine. It said TikTok may have processed the data of children under 13 without appropriate parental consent, and processed “special category data” without legal grounds to do so. The commissioner said “special category data” included ethnic and racial origin, political opinions, religious beliefs and sexual orientation. It also said TikTok may have failed to provide transparent, easily understood information to its users. The legal document covered the period from May 2018 to July 2020. Information…