Innholdsfortegnelse for #593 i Techlife News

Federal officials said they have completed outfitting 43 major U.S. airports with technology to warn when incoming planes are aimed at a taxiway instead of a runway. The Federal Aviation Administration said the system’s software predicts when a plane is lined up to land on a taxiway and sends an alert to air-traffic controllers. None of the recent close calls between planes have involved aircraft lined up incorrectly to land on a taxiway, but that type of error nearly resulted in disaster at San Francisco International Airport in 2017. The National Transportation Safety Board recommended the technology change after the San Francisco incident in which an Air Canada jet nearly crashed into four other planes on a taxiway at night. The safety board also recommended that the FAA require planes…

The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits last week jumped by the most in five months, but layoffs remain historically low as the labor market continues to be largely unaffected by the Federal Reserve’s interest rate hikes. Applications for jobless claims in the U.S. for the week ending March 4 rose by 21,000 to 211,000 from 190,000 the previous week, the Labor Department said Thursday. It’s the first time in eight weeks that claims came in above 200,000. The four-week moving average of claims, which flattens out some of the weekly ups and downs, rose by 4,000 to 197,000, remaining below the 200,000 threshold for the seventh straight week. Applications for unemployment benefits are considered a proxy for layoffs. Last month the Fed raised its main lending rate by…

During an investor event at Tesla’s Gigafactory in Austin, Texas, Elon Musk revealed the next part of the company’s ambitious Master Plan: leading the global effort to eliminate fossil fuels and converting the world to sustainable energy, with potentially endless benefits. MUSK’S MASTER PLAN The latest Tesla Investor Event made one thing simple: the company wants to change how we charge our cars forever. During the keynote, Elon Musk said he wanted to help “eliminate fossil fuels and convert the world to sustainable energy.” The event was an opportunity for Musk to outline his vision for a “sustainable energy civilization” and to provide insights into how Tesla will achieve its goals. Musk’s plan includes several key elements, including expanding the world’s energy storage capacity by up to 240TWh, adding renewable…

Ford will increase production of six models this year, half of them electric, as the company and the auto industry start to rebound from sluggish U.S. sales in 2022. The automaker announced that it plans to build more of the Mustang Mach-E, the Bronco Sport SUV and Maverick small pickup, the F-150 Lightning electric pickup, and the Transit and E-Transit gas and electric full-size vans. To help increase production, Ford last year said it would add a third shift and 1,100 jobs at its full-size van plant in Claycomo, Missouri, near Kansas City, and another 3,200 jobs related to building the F-150 Lightning which is made in Dearborn, Michigan. Ford will also hire an unspecified number of new workers this year at plants in Cuautitlan and Hermosillo, Mexico, where the…

The job market in the U.S. remains strong overall, but recent high-profile layoffs at technology and media companies and predictions of a recession later this year may have you thinking about job security. If you’re worried you could be laid off — or if you’ve lost your job — here are recommendations from experts. IF YOU ARE CONCERNED YOU MAY BE LAID OFF START SAVING It’s crucial to start building an emergency fund even when you feel secure at your job but especially if you think you might lose it. You might not be able to save enough to cover the whole time you’ll be out of work, but even a small amount can reduce your stress. When you start thinking about saving, Jesse Mecham, founder of the money management…

Members of the House and Senate were informed that hackers may have gained access to their sensitive personal data in a breach of a Washington, D.C., health insurance marketplace. Employees of the lawmakers and their families were also affected. DC Health Link confirmed that data on an unspecified number of customers was affected and said it was notifying them and working with law enforcement. It said it was offering identity theft service to those affected and extending credit monitoring to all customers. The FBI said it was aware of the incident and was assisting the investigation. A broker on an online crime forum claimed to have records on 170,000 DC Health Link customers and was offering them for sale for an unspecified amount. The broker claimed they were stolen Monday.…

In explaining why Tesla Inc. keeps cutting prices on its electric vehicles, the auto industry is pretty much divided into two camps. On one side are analysts who see an aggressive move by the leading manufacturer of EVs to gobble up sales and market share from its competitors just as they’re beginning to bring more vehicles to market. On the other side are critics who argue that with demand for Tesla’s older vehicles beginning to wane, the company feels forced to slash prices to attract buyers. Over the weekend, Tesla cut the prices of its two costliest vehicles, from $5,000 to $10,000, or from 4.3% to just over 9%. A Model S two-motor sedan now starts at $89,990, with the Plaid “performance” version beginning at $109,990. A Model X SUV…

Hollywood is gearing up for the 95th Academy Awards, where “Everything Everywhere All at Once” comes in the lead nominee and the film industry will hope to move past “the slap” of last year’s ceremony. Here’s everything you need to know about the 2023 Oscars, including when they are, where to watch the live show and this year’s controversies. WHEN ARE THE OSCARS? The Oscars will be held Sunday, March 12, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. The ceremony is set to begin at 8 p.m. EST and be broadcast live on ABC. CAN YOU STREAM THE OSCARS? The broadcast can be streamed with a subscription to Hulu Live TV, YouTubeTV, AT&T TV and Fubo TV. Some of these services offer brief free trials. You can also stream the…

Buying an electric vehicle used to mean choosing from battery range, performance, utility or luxury. You might’ve found a car possessing two of those attributes but rarely all of the above. But the BMW iX and Rivian R1S are two electric SUVs that require no compromise, combining stellar performance and long-distance capability with plenty of convenience and tech features. Which one is the best for your money? Vehicle experts compare both to find out. PERFORMANCE Both SUVs provide obscene amounts of power. The BMW iX packs two electric motors, one driving each axle, that produce 516 horsepower in standard form or 610 horsepower in M60 trim. Power figures for the Rivian R1S are even more extreme, with four motors producing an outlandish 835 horsepower and 938 lb-ft of torque. A…

“A toast to the disruptors,” Edward Norton’s tech billionaire says in Rian Johnson’s Oscar-nominated “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery.” And why not a toast? Sunday’s Academy Awards won’t give a prize for best villain, but if they did, Miles Bron would win it in a walk. (With apologies to the cloud of “Nope.”) He is an immediately recognizable type we’ve grown well acquainted with: a visionary (or so everyone says), a social media narcissist, a self-styled disrupter who talks a lot about “breaking stuff.” Miles Bron is just the latest in a long line of Hollywood’s favorite villain: the tech bro. Looking north to Silicon Valley, the movie industry has found perhaps its richest resource of big-screen antagonists since Soviet-era Russia. Great movie villains don’t come along often. The…

Replete with spellbinding multiverses, “Everything Everywhere All at Once” topped the 95th Academy Awards nominations with 11 nods. Elsewhere, stories of friendship and family permeated 2022 cinema and the nominations this year, as did big-budget blockbusters. Some of the nominated films are still in theaters but many are also available online to stream now. Here’s where you can find many of the the movies vying for Oscar glory on March 12: “EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE” 11 nominations. Digital purchase. The A24-produced indie “Everything Everywhere All at Once” has been a critical success and crowd-pleaser since it came out last spring. The film is nominated for best picture and Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan, Stephanie Hsu and Jamie Lee Curtis received nods for their performances. Yeoh, Quan and Hsu carry…

Even if you haven’t tried artificial intelligence tools that can write essays and poems or conjure new images on command, chances are the companies that make your household products are already starting to do so. Mattel has put the AI image generator DALL-E to work by having it come up with ideas for new Hot Wheels toy cars. Used vehicle seller CarMax is summarizing thousands of customer reviews with the same “generative” AI technology that powers the popular chatbot ChatGPT. Meanwhile, Snapchat is bringing a chatbot to its messaging service. And the grocery delivery company Instacart is integrating ChatGPT to answer customers’ food questions. Coca-Cola plans to use generative AI to help create new marketing content. And while the company hasn’t detailed exactly how it plans to deploy the technology,…

The Dutch government announced that it is planning on imposing additional restrictions on the export of machines that make advanced processor chips, joining a U.S. push that aims at limiting China’s access to materials used to make such chips. Dutch Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation Liesje Schreinemacher sent a letter to lawmakers outlining the proposed limitations, which come in addition to existing export controls on semiconductor technology. “In view of technological developments and geopolitical context, the government has come to the conclusion that it is necessary for (inter) national security to extend the existing export control of specific semiconductor production equipment,” she wrote. Prime Minister Mark Rutte visited U.S. President Joe Biden in January for talks on advanced chip machines made by Dutch company ASML and other topics.…

The Biden administration is close to tightening rules on some overseas investments by U.S. companies in an effort to limit China’s ability to acquire technologies that could improve its military prowess, according to a U.S. official familiar with the deliberations. The soon-to-be-issued executive order from President Joe Biden will limit American investment in advanced technologies that have national security applications — such as next-generation military capabilities that could help China improve the speed and accuracy of military decision making, according to the official, who was not authorized to comment and spoke on the condition of anonymity. The expected action is the latest effort by the White House to target China’s military and technology sectors at a time of increasingly fraught relations between the world’s two biggest economies. In October, the…