Innholdsfortegnelse for #585 i Techlife News

The head of the National Transportation Safety Board expressed concern about the safety risks that heavy electric vehicles pose if they collide with lighter vehicles. The official, Jennifer Homendy, raised the issue in a speech in Washington to the Transportation Research Board. She noted, by way of example, that an electric GMC Hummer weighs about 9,000 pounds (4,000 kilograms), with a battery pack that alone is 2,900 pounds (1,300 kilograms) — roughly the entire weight of a typical Honda Civic. “I’m concerned about the increased risk of severe injury and death for all road users from heavier curb weights and increasing size, power, and performance of vehicles on our roads, including electric vehicles,” Homendy said in remarks prepared for the group. The extra weight that EVs typically carry stems from…

Universal Parks & Resorts is bringing a theme park to Texas that will focus on entertaining young children, officials announced this week. The “one-of-a-kind” park in the Dallas suburb of Frisco will include attractions, interactive shows and opportunities for meet-and-greets with characters, the company said in a news release. It is expected to be about a quarter of the size of the company’s large Orlando theme parks, according to Page Thompson, the company’s president of new ventures. “Even though it may be smaller in terms of acreage than our other parks, the quality of it, the level, worthy of the Universal name,” Thompson said during a news conference in Frisco. Universal Parks & Resorts recently purchased 97 acres (39 hectares), where the park and a 300-room hotel will be located,…

Apple has had a great run under the leadership of CEO Tim Cook, who took over after the passing of co-founder Steve Jobs in 2011. Cook has successfully navigated the company through a number of challenges and has helped to maintain its position as one of the most valuable and innovative tech companies in the world. However, all good things must come to an end, and eventually, Cook will step down as CEO. When that time comes, who will be the next leader of the tech giant? Here are a few possible candidates: JEFF WILLIAMS Williams is Apple’s current Chief Operating Officer and has been with the company for over 20 years. He joined Apple in 1998 and has played a key role in the development of many of the…

When a futuristic-looking electric Ram pickup truck goes on sale next year, it will hardly be the first in line. By then, at least seven EV competitors are scheduled to be on sale, all of them vying for a share of the huge full-size truck market that now includes the three top-selling gasoline and diesel powered vehicles in the United States. Four models — Ford’s F-150 Lightning, Rivian’s R1T, Lordstown Motors’ Endurance and the GMC Hummer EV Pickup — already are on the road. And this year or next, three others — the Chevrolet Silverado EV, GMC Sierra EV and Tesla’s Cybertruck — are scheduled to roll out. Yet executives at Ram, which is Stellantis’ truck and commercial vehicle brand, say it doesn’t bother them to be following rather than…

Like the tobacco, oil, gun, opioid and vaping industries before them, the big U.S. social media companies are now facing lawsuits brought by public entities that seek to hold them accountable for a huge societal problem — in their case, the mental health crisis among youth. But the new lawsuits — one by the public school district in Seattle last week, with a second filed by a suburban district and almost certainly more to come — face an uncertain legal road. The U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments next month over the extent to which federal law protects the tech industry from such claims when social media algorithms push potentially harmful content. Even if the high court were to clear the way for lawsuits like Seattle’s, the district…

Chances are that your “buy now, pay later” bill from the holiday season will arrive soon or has already made its debut. If you’re not financially prepared to pay up, late fees or other charges can bury you deeper in debt. Circumstances can change over a matter of weeks through financial setbacks like unemployment, an unexpected bill, a family emergency or other events. When you’re feeling the financial squeeze of those pay-in-four buy now, pay later plans — and possibly other debts — it’s important to create a plan to pay down balances. Here are a few options to consider as you strategize your way out of debt. 1. UPDATE YOUR BUDGET Review your budget and trim unnecessary expenses or swap services for less costly alternatives. Cancel unused subscriptions, for…

A South Korean solar panel maker will invest more than $2.5 billion to build factories in Georgia, hiring 2,500 new employees and making components usually manufactured outside the United States, the company announced this week. Qcells, a unit of Hanwha Solutions, will build a new factory in Cartersville that will employ 2,000 people, with construction starting within weeks and production starting before the end of 2024. The company also announced a third phase of its Dalton plant, already the largest maker of solar panels in the Western Hemisphere. Qcells will add nearly 500 jobs in Dalton, raising employment above 1,500 once all expansions are complete there. “We are seeking to further expand our low-carbon solar investments as we lead the industry towards fully American-made clean energy solutions,” Qcells CEO Justin…

Until Wednesday, few travelers had ever heard of a Notice to Air Missions, or NOTAM, nor did they know that the system used to generate those notices could cause widespread travel misery. As they arrived at airports in the morning, they quickly found out. The Federal Aviation Administration computer system that compiles and distributes essential safety information for pilots went kaput. That temporarily grounded all flights nationwide and touched off a cascading air traffic jam that will take at least a day to unclog. More than 1,300 flights were canceled and 9,000 delayed by early evening on the East Coast because of the outage, according to flight-tracking website FlightAware. The system has been around for more than a half century and it has evolved from paper to computers. It’s in…

Delta Air Lines will provide free Wi-Fi service on most of its U.S. flights starting in February, CEO Ed Bastian announced at the CES technology trade show. Bastian said by the end of the year, the airline will outfit more than 700 planes with high-speed, satellite-based broadband service from T-Mobile. It plans to expand free Wi-Fi to international and Delta Connection flights by the end of 2024. The service will use equipment from Viasat, a U.S.-based satellite broadband provider. “It’s always struck me that when we fly, we fly to connect,” Bastian told in an interview. “But when we’re in the sky, we disconnect.” Many airlines are upgrading internet access on their planes so passengers can stay connected or stream entertainment on their electronic devices, but they usually have to…

The term “metaverse” is the latest buzzword to capture the tech industry’s imagination — and while Facebook parent Meta is the best-known entrant into this futuristic virtual concept, it’s certainly not the only one. Mark Zuckerberg’s all-in embrace — including renaming his company and investing tens of billions of dollars — might be the biggest thing to happen to the metaverse since science fiction writer Neal Stephenson coined the term for his 1992 novel “Snow Crash.” But Zuckerberg and his team are hardly the only tech visionaries with ideas on how the metaverse, which will employ a mix of virtual reality and other technologies, should take shape. At this year’s CES, the tech industry showcase in Las Vegas, the metaverse is a “key theme,” said Kinsey Fabrizio, senior vice president…

Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares says his company has to work on cutting costs globally in order to keep electric vehicles affordable for the middle class. Among the cuts are reducing the number of the automaker’s factories because electric vehicles cost about 40% more than those powered by gasoline. Without cost reductions, EVs will be too expensive for the middle class, shrinking the market and driving costs up more, Tavares told reporters at the CES gadget show in Las Vegas. “If the size of the market shrinks, you are back to square one because you are reducing the efficiency and effectiveness of your manufacturing operation,” he said. “You go from hero to zero in three years if you stop working on costs.” Stellantis began the factory reduction process in the U.S.…

The public school district in Seattle has filed a novel lawsuit against the tech giants behind TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and Snapchat, seeking to hold them accountable for the mental health crisis among youth. Seattle Public Schools filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court. The 91-page complaint says the social media companies have created a public nuisance by targeting their products to children. It blames them for worsening mental health and behavioral disorders including anxiety, depression, disordered eating and cyberbullying; making it more difficult to educate students; and forcing schools to take steps such as hiring additional mental health professionals, developing lesson plans about the effects of social media, and providing additional training to teachers. “Defendants have successfully exploited the vulnerable brains of youth, hooking tens of millions of students…

In nominations to its 29th annual awards, the Screen Actors Guild heaped honors on the casts of “Everything Everywhere All at Once” and “The Banshees of Inisherin,” while throwing some curve balls into the Oscar race. The awards, voted on by the Hollywood actors’ guild SAG-AFTRA, were announced Wednesday on Instagram Live by Haley Lu Richardson (“The White Lotus”) and Ashley Park (“Emily in Paris”). The nominees for the guild’s top award, best ensemble, are: “Babylon,”“The Banshees of Inisherin,”“Everything Everywhere All at Once,” “The Fabelmans” and “Women Talking.” Up for best performance by an female actor in a leading role are: Cate Blanchett (“Tár”), Viola Davis (“The Woman King”), Ana de Armas (“Blonde”), Danielle Deadwyler (“Till”) and Michelle Yeoh (“Everything Everywhere All at Once”). Nominated for best performance by a…

The U.S. inflation report for December being released Thursday morning could provide another welcome sign that the worst bout of spiking prices in four decades is slowly weakening. Or it could suggest that inflation remains persistent enough to require tougher action by the Federal Reserve. Most economists foresee the more optimistic scenario: They think December marked another month in which inflation, though still uncomfortably high, continued to cool. According to a survey by the data provider FactSet, analysts have predicted that consumer prices rose 6.5% in December compared with a year earlier. That would be down from 7.1% in November and well below a 40-year high of 9.1% in June. On a month-to-month basis, the economists think prices were flat in December. Even more significant, a closely watched gauge of…

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., the biggest contract manufacturer of processor chips for smartphones and other products, said Thursday its quarterly profit rose 78% over a year earlier but forecast weak demand this year. Revenue for the final quarter of 2022 rose 42.8% over a year earlier to 625.5 billion New Taiwan dollars ($20.6 billion), the company announced. Profit was 295.9 billion New Taiwan dollars ($9.7 billion). TSMC, headquartered in Hsinchu, Taiwan, makes processor chips for brands including Apple Inc. and Qualcomm Inc. Many of their products are assembled by factories in China, which has exposed TSMC to the possible impact of U.S.-Chinese tension over technology and security. Fourth quarter sales suffered from “demand softness” as global economies weakened, TSCM’s chief financial officer, Wendell Huang, said in a statement. Huang said…

A tweet from Elon Musk indicating that Tesla might allow some owners who are testing a “Full Self-Driving” system to disable an alert that reminds them to keep their hands on the steering wheel has drawn attention from U.S. safety regulators. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says it asked Tesla for more information about the tweet. Last week, the agency said the issue is now part of a broader investigation into at least 14 Teslas that have crashed into emergency vehicles while using the Autopilot driver assist system. Since 2021, Tesla has been beta-testing “Full Self-Driving” using owners who haven’t been trained on the system but are actively monitored by the company. Earlier this year, Tesla said 160,000, roughly 15% of Teslas now on U.S. roads, were participating. A…

Cryptocurrency trading platform Coinbase is cutting approximately 20% of its workforce, or about 950 jobs, in a second round of layoffs in less than a year. The company cited adverse economic conditions and disruptions within cryptocurrency markets. Bitcoin has plunged almost 60% over the past year and a volatile year got worse in late 2022 with the collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX which filed for bankruptcy protection in November after experiencing the equivalent of a bank run. Customers tried to withdraw billions of dollars from the exchange after its financial stability came into question. Last week FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried pleaded not guilty in Manhattan federal court to charges that he cheated investors and looted customer deposits on his cryptocurrency trading platform. Coinbase announced the elimination of 1,100 jobs in…

Avocados can be tricky. Their ripeness window is so narrow that a slew of memes poke fun at the fine art of deciding when to eat them. Dutch entrepreneur Marco Snikkers aims to solve that problem with an avocado scanner unveiled at the CES tech show in Las Vegas and designed for use in supermarkets. It uses optical sensing and AI technology to determine ripeness, displaying on a screen whether an avocado is firm or ready to eat. Snikkers’ startup, OneThird, isn’t just trying to reduce frustration in the kitchen. According to the United Nations, about one-third of food is wasted globally. That means all the carbon emitted to grow, ship and distribute that food was for naught. “That’s a huge problem,” Snikkers said. “That’s a trillion dollar issue for…

TikTok’s CEO met Tuesday with European Union officials about strict new digital regulations in the 27-nation bloc as the Chinese-owned social media app faces growing scrutiny from Western authorities over data privacy, cybersecurity and misinformation. In meetings in Brussels, Shou Zi Chew and four officials from the EU’s executive Commission discussed concerns ranging from child safety to investigations into user data flowing to China, according to European readouts from two of the meetings and tweets from a third. TikTok is wildly popular with young people but its Chinese ownership has raised fears that Beijing could use it to scoop up user data or push pro-China narratives or misinformation. TikTok is owned by ByteDance, a Chinese company that moved its headquarters to Singapore in 2020. U.S. states including Kansas, Wisconsin, Louisiana…