Innholdsfortegnelse for #596 i Techlife News

Attorneys for a group of Tesla shareholders are asking the Delaware Supreme Court to overturn a judge’s decision in favor of CEO Elon Musk in a lawsuit challenging the electric car maker’s $2.4 billion acquisition of a solar panel company founded by two of his cousins. The plaintiffs argued Wednesday that a Chancery Court judge erred in finding that Tesla’s deal to acquire SolarCity in 2016 was “entirely fair,” even though the judge found that the process by which Tesla’s board of directors negotiated and recommended the deal to shareholders was “far from perfect.” “Elon was more involved in the process than a conflicted fiduciary should be. And conflicts among other Tesla Board members were not completely neutralized,” former Vice Chancellor Joseph Slights wrote last year. “With that said, the…

Alibaba plans to spin off some of its sprawling e-commerce and finance empire as independent businesses to make them more flexible and maximize their value, its top executives said Thursday, as the company emerges from regulatory crackdowns that rattled Chinese tech industries. Alibaba CEO Daniel Zhang outlined details of a plan announced earlier this week to split Alibaba into six main groups as a prelude toward stock listings of some of its companies. The restructuring marks a new stage in Alibaba’s growth after a series of setbacks as regulators tightened oversight of the industry. Alibaba, whose headquarters is in the eastern city of Hangzhou, will be “in the nature of a holding company that is the controlling shareholder of the business group companies,” Zhang said in a conference call. Alibaba’s…

Lucid Motors, the renowned producer of high-end EVs, has announced its models will feature wireless CarPlay. This move has triggered speculations of a potential acquisition by Apple as the tech giant gears up to venture into the realm of self-branded automobiles. LUCID AIR: INNOVATIONS IN LUXURY, STYLE, AND TECH The Lucid Air has been widely praised for its innovation and sophistication, leading it to be voted the 2022 MotorTrend Car of the Year. With many innovations in luxury and style beyond Tesla, it provides a unique and distinct experience for owners. And it’s clear to see why: the Lucid Air boasts a big battery and compact motors, both of which have been designed in-house, giving it an edge over other EVs in the market. The Grand Touring Performance model can…

Are tech companies moving too fast in rolling out powerful artificial intelligence technology that could one day outsmart humans? That’s the conclusion of a group of prominent computer scientists and other tech industry notables such as Elon Musk and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak who are calling for a 6-month pause to consider the risks. Their petition published Wednesday is a response to San Francisco startup OpenAI’s recent release of GPT-4, a more advanced successor to its widely-used AI chatbot ChatGPT that helped spark a race among tech giants Microsoft and Google to unveil similar applications. WHAT DO THEY SAY? The letter warns that AI systems with “human-competitive intelligence can pose profound risks to society and humanity” — from flooding the internet with disinformation and automating away jobs to more catastrophic…

The U.S. government will restrict its use of commercial spyware tools that have been used to surveil human rights activists, journalists and dissidents around the world, under an executive order issued Monday by President Joe Biden. The order responds to growing U.S. and global concerns about programs that can capture text messages and other cellphone data. Some programs — so-called “zero-click” exploits — can infect a phone without the user clicking on a malicious link. Governments around the world — including the U.S. — are known to collect large amounts of data for intelligence and law enforcement purposes, including communications from their own citizens. The proliferation of commercial spyware has made powerful tools newly available to smaller countries, but also created what researchers and human-rights activists warn are opportunities for…

When you’re carrying a credit card balance, paying at least the minimum due each month is certainly a start. If those payments aren’t making your overall budget feel squeezed, you have all the more reason to put payments on autopilot and not think about the total cost of your debt. “Our pace of life has gotten really busy,” says Delia Fernandez, a certified financial planner and the founder and president of Fernandez Financial Advisory LLC in Los Alamitos, California. “There’s always something that’s more important, particularly for these people who are not in a financial crisis.” But that inertia can cost you, especially with average credit card interest rates reaching 20.4% as of November 2022, according to the Federal Reserve. NerdWallet’s 2022 American Household Credit Card Debt Study, conducted by…

House Republicans on Thursday approved a sprawling energy package that seeks to undo virtually all of President Joe Biden’s agenda to address climate change. The legislation would sharply increase domestic production of oil, natural gas and coal, and ease permitting restrictions that delay pipelines, refineries and other projects. It would boost production of critical minerals such as lithium, nickel and cobalt that are used in electric vehicles, computers, cellphones and other products. By a 225-204 vote, the House sent the measure to the Senate, where Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called it “dead on arrival.” Four Democrats joined with all but one Republican to support the bill. Biden has threatened to veto the bill, saying it would replace “pro-consumer policies” adopted in the landmark climate law approved last year “with…

Apple has officially announced that its 34th annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) will take place from Monday, June 5 to Friday, June 9, 2023. This event will be held online for the most part, just like WWDC 2020, 2021, and 2022, and will be open to all developers at no cost. As usual, WWDC 2023 will provide online sessions and labs for developers to learn about the new features and software that will be announced at the event. Additionally, Apple will hold a traditional Swift Student Challenge, with applications being accepted until April 19, 2023. This year, Apple is also planning an all-day special event for select developers and students at the Apple Park campus on June 5. Attendees will have the opportunity to watch keynote and State of the…

Apple is getting into the buy now, pay later space with a few tweaks to the existing model — including no option to pay with a credit card. The company will roll out the product to some consumers this spring, and will begin reporting the loans to credit bureaus in the fall. Here’s what you need to know. Since the start of the pandemic, the option to “buy now, pay later” has skyrocketed in popularity, especially among young and low-income consumers who may not have ready access to traditional credit. If you shop online for clothes or furniture, sneakers or concert tickets, you’ve seen the option at checkout to break the cost into smaller installments over time. Companies like Afterpay, Affirm, Klarna, and Paypal already offer the service, typically with…

Extra-small luxury SUVs are a great way to cruise around in luxury without paying an excessive amount. As an example, check out the Mercedes-Benz GLB. It has been one of the top performers in its class since it was introduced in 2020. It sports distinctive boxy styling, excellent technology and a comfortable ride. But in today’s highly competitive market, there’s always a new model aiming for the top spot. The GLB’s main rival, the BMW X1, was redesigned for 2023. The little Bimmer received updated styling, a roomier interior and many of BMW’s top-notch technology features. Which one is the better buy? Experts compared them to find out. POWER & FUEL ECONOMY Turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder engines power both luxury SUVs. The X1’s 241-horsepower powerplant is not only more powerful than…

The origin story of the iconic computer game “Tetris” is more thrilling than you may think. It involves border crossing, authority dodging, underhand deals, putting your house on the line and — finally — trying to secure the rights for the game from behind the Iron Curtain. And now it’s a film, releasing March 31, on Apple TV+. After playing an early version of Tetris, game designer Henk Rogers (played by Taron Egerton) travels to the Soviet Union in 1988 to meet Tetris designer Alexey Pajitnov (played by Nikita Efremov), hoping to secure worldwide distribution rights to the game. Rogers was driven by his love of Tetris and his eagerness for the world to experience it, but the transaction was not smooth. Egerton says he doesn’t have the tenacity of…

For millennials with chronic medical conditions — or those raising kids with chronic conditions — health care can be an enormous monthly expense. About 44% of older millennials born between 1981 and 1988 have at least one chronic health condition, including migraines, major depression and asthma, according to a 2021 survey of over 4,000 adults conducted by The Harris Poll on behalf of CNBC Make It. And many millennials are also caring for children with complicated medical needs. Expenses can include doctor’s visits, tests and prescription drugs, plus indirect costs that may result from missing work. But there are ways to keep health care costs lower, including taking advantage of a flexible spending account or health savings account, comparing pharmacy prices on medications and using a care manager through your…

Well, it was nice while it lasted. For nearly a year, the average used vehicle in the United States had been edging toward affordable again for millions of people. The relief felt belated and relatively slight, but it was welcome nonetheless. From an eye-watering peak of $31,400 in April of last year, the average price had dropped 14% to $27,125 early this month. Now, with the supply of used vehicles failing to keep up with robust demand, prices are creeping up again, with signs pointing to further increases ahead. So many buyers have been priced out of the new-car market that fewer trade-ins are landing on dealer lots. Deepening the shortage, fewer used vehicles are coming off leases or being off-loaded by rental car companies. Average list prices for used…

The wind power industry projected growth to rapidly accelerate this year, with incentives and policy changes in key nations helping to overcome factors that led to a slowdown in 2022. The Global Wind Energy Council in Brussels also cited concern about climate change, as well as secure energy supplies following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, for a fast-growth outlook in its annual Global Wind Report. The international trade association projected 680 gigawatts of new onshore and offshore wind will be installed by 2027 – enough to power about 657 million homes annually. “The twin challenges of secure energy supplies and climate targets will propel wind power into a new phase of extraordinary growth,” the council said in its report. The wind power market stalled in 2022 because of government policies that…

The Federal Reserve’s bank supervisors warned Silicon Valley Bank’s management as early as the fall of 2021 of risks stemming from its unusual business model, a top Fed official said, but its managers failed to take the steps necessary to fix the problems. The Fed official, Michael Barr, the nation’s top banking regulator, said during a Senate Banking Committee hearing that the Fed is considering whether stronger bank rules are needed to prevent a similar failure in the future. Silicon Valley Bank’s management was deficient, Barr said. In particular, he said, the interest rate model the bank used “was not at all aligned with reality.” The timeline that Barr laid out for when the Fed had alerted Silicon Valley’s management to the risks it faced is earlier than the central…

To use, or not to use, Bard? That is the Shakespearean question a reporter sought to answer while testing out Google’s artificially intelligent chatbot. The recently rolled-out bot dubbed Bard is the internet search giant’s answer to the ChatGPT tool that Microsoft has been melding into its Bing search engine and other software. During several hours of interaction, we learned Bard is quite forthcoming about its unreliability and other shortcomings, including its potential for mischief in next year’s U.S. presidential election. Even as it occasionally warned of the problems it could unleash, Bard repeatedly emphasized its belief that it will blossom into a force for good. At one point in its recurring soliloquies about its potential upsides, Bard dreamed about living up to the legacy of the English playwright that…

Utah’s sweeping social media legislation passed last week is an ambitious attempt to shield children and teens from the ill effects of social media and empower parents to decide whether their kids should be using apps like TikTok or Instagram. What’s not clear is if — and how — the new rules can be enforced and whether they will create unintended consequences for kids and teens already coping with a mental health crisis. And while parental rights are a central theme of Utah’s new laws, experts point out that the rights of parents and the best interests of children are not always aligned. For instance, allowing parents to read their kids’ private messages may be harmful to some children, and age verification requirements could give tech companies access to kids’…

President Joe Biden said that Republicans’ ideas for cutting the budget could undermine U.S. manufacturing and help China dominate the world economy. Speaking at a semiconductor maker in North Carolina to highlight his own policies, Biden is trying to shape public sentiment as he faces off with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., about whether the federal government should raise its legal borrowing capacity. McCarthy sent a letter Tuesday saying that talks should start about possible spending cuts in return for the debt limit increase. Biden has said Republicans need to put forth their own budget plan before negotiations start. Without an agreement, the federal government could default on its financial obligations. The president tried to ratchet up pressure on Tuesday by saying that the GOP demands on the budget would…