Innholdsfortegnelse for #599 i Techlife News

After Ben Affleck and Matt Damon test screened their Nike drama “Air,” the film executives at Amazon Studios threw them a curveball. “They said, ‘What do you guys think about a theatrical release?’” Damon says. “It wasn’t what we expected when we first made the deal.” “Air,” about Nike’s pursuit of a shoe deal with Michael Jordan, went over so well with early audiences that Amazon, despite acquiring the film for its Prime Video streaming service, wanted to launch it in theaters. And in its first two weeks, “Air” has been a hit. After a strong five-day debut of $20.2 million — especially good for an adult-skewing drama — “Air” dipped only 47% in its second weekend. Reviews have been stellar. When “Air” does arrive on Prime Video, the studio…

Step into a U.S. military recreation hall at a base almost anywhere in the world and you’re bound to see it: young troops immersed in the world of online games, using government-funded gaming machines or their own consoles. The enthusiasm military personnel have for gaming — and the risk that carries — is in the spotlight after Jack Teixeira, a 21-year-old Massachusetts Air National Guardsman, was charged with illegally taking and posting highly classified material in a geopolitical chat room on Discord, a social media platform that started as a hangout for gamers. State secrets can be illegally shared in countless different ways, from whispered conversations and dead drops to myriad social media platforms. But online gaming forums have long been a particular worry of the military because of their…

Volkswagen unveiled an electric luxury sedan that promises a 700-kilometer (435-mile) battery range as global and Chinese automakers displayed their latest SUVs, sedans and muscle cars at the world’s biggest auto show this week. Auto Shanghai 2023 reflects the intense competition in China’s fast-growing electric vehicle market after the ruling Communist Party poured billions of dollars into promoting the technology. China accounted for two-thirds of global electrics sales last year. Brands including General Motors, BMW and Nissan and Chinese rivals BYD Auto and NIO unveiled dozens of new EVs in the cavernous Shanghai exhibition center. Brands touted faster charging, satellite-linked navigation and entertainment, and the future possibility of self-driving technology. Volkswagen’s ID.7 sedan, the new flagship model for its electric vehicles, was one of 28 models displayed by the German…

Anyone in the U.S. who has had a Facebook account at any time since May 24, 2007, can now apply for their share of a $725 million privacy settlement that parent company Meta has agreed to pay. Meta is paying to settle a lawsuit alleging the world’s largest social media platform allowed millions of its users’ personal information to be fed to Cambridge Analytica, a firm that supported Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. It’s not clear how much money individual users will receive. The larger the number of people submitting valid claims, the smaller each payment will be since the money has to be divided among them. To apply for the settlement, users can fill out a form and submit it online, or print it out and mail it. The…

Netflix announced in its Q1 2023 earnings report that it will be expanding its “paid sharing” plan, which targets password sharing, to more countries in the second quarter, including the United States. The company has already implemented password sharing restrictions in Canada, New Zealand, Spain, and Portugal, and claims to be “pleased with the results” so far. Initially, Netflix had planned to start tackling password sharing in the U.S. in the first quarter of the year, but decided to delay the rollout after learning from its tests and discovering opportunities to improve the user experience. While the company expects a “cancel reaction” in each market where paid sharing is introduced, it anticipates increased revenue in the long run as users activate their own Netflix accounts or add “extra member” accounts.…

SpaceX’s giant new rocket exploded minutes after blasting off on its first test flight Thursday and crashed into the Gulf of Mexico. Elon Musk’s company was aiming to send the nearly 400-foot (120-meter) Starship rocket on a round-the-world trip from the southern tip of Texas, near the Mexican border. It carried no people or satellites. Images showed several of the 33 main engines were not firing as the rocket climbed from the launch pad, reaching as high as 24 miles (39 kilometers). There was no immediate word from SpaceX on how many engines failed to ignite or shut down prematurely. The booster was supposed to peel away from the spacecraft minutes after liftoff, but that didn’t happen. The rocket began to tumble and then exploded four minutes into the flight,…

In a world where artificial intelligence is increasingly becoming an integral part of our lives, Macs are emerging as AI production stations for workflow, creative production, and personal entertainment, serving as a bridge between humans and computers for the next generation. MACBOOKS IN AN AI AGE With AI taking over low-level tasks such as coding, content production, and support, the new role of Macs is to act as an interface between humans and AI, enabling us to interact with and manage our AI assistants. The new role of Macs is particularly relevant for professionals working in creative fields. With the help of AI, they can increase their productivity, speed up their workflow, and produce more engaging content. For instance, video editors can use AI to automate time-consuming tasks such as…

The European Union was closing in Tuesday on approval for a plan to ramp up semiconductor production as it seeks to wean itself off reliance on Asia for the tiny computer chips that control everything from cars to washing machines. The European Parliament and the bloc’s 27 member states struck an informal agreement for the 43 billion-euro ($47 billion) Chips Act, which pools public and private funds and allows for state aid to kick-start massive investments for chipmaking facilities. “The Chips act puts Europe in the first line of cutting-edge technologies which are essential for our green and digital transitions,” Ebba Busch, industry minister for Sweden, which holds the rotating EU presidency, said in a statement. The EU is scrambling to keep up with the U.S., which launched its own…

Microsoft has agreed to buy a $50 million parcel of land in southeastern Wisconsin meant for Foxconn after the world’s largest electronics manufacturer failed to fulfill grandiose promises to build a massive facility that would employ thousands of workers. Microsoft plans to build a $1 billion data center on the 315-acre (127-hectare) parcel in Mount Pleasant, a village of about 27,000 people in Racine County, about 30 miles (50 kilometers) south of Milwaukee. It’s unclear how many people the center might employ. Paul Englis, Microsoft’s director of global community research and engagement, told the Racine County Board of Supervisors that such centers typically employ 300 to 400 people. The village already is home to a Foxconn Technology Group manufacturing facility. The Taiwan-based company is best known for making Apple iPhones.…

When parents talk with their kids at the dinner table, estate planning probably doesn’t come up. But considering we aren’t immortal, it should. It’s worth having age-appropriate conversations to introduce children to the idea of estate planning. As children grow older, parents can provide more specifics about their plans and eventually assist their children in developing their own plans as adults. RUN THEM THROUGH YOUR ESTATE PLAN If you have an estate plan in place, consider running your children through it so they have an idea of what’s included in one. Camelia Ruffin , an estate planning attorney and founder of The Ruffin Firm in Douglasville, Georgia, suggests parents do a very basic outline, which includes telling children what each document is and what it’s used for. Talking through your…

The Biden administration announced more than $80 million in funding Thursday in a push to produce more solar panels in the U.S., make solar energy available to more people, and pursue superior alternatives to the ubiquitous sparkly panels made with silicon. The Department of Energy announced the investments in the morning and Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm plans to visit a community solar site in Washington in the afternoon. Community solar refers to a variety of arrangements where renters and people who don’t control their rooftops can still get their electricity from solar power. Two weeks ago, Vice President Kamala Harris announced what the administration said was the largest community solar effort ever in the United States. Now it is set to spend $52 million on 19 solar projects across a…

Billionaire Twitter owner Elon Musk is again sounding warning bells on the dangers of artificial intelligence to humanity — and claiming that a popular chatbot has a liberal bias that he plans to counter with his own AI creation. Musk told Fox News host Tucker Carlson in a segment aired Monday night that he plans to create an alternative to the popular AI chatbot ChatGPT that he is calling “TruthGPT,” which will be a “maximum truth-seeking AI that tries to understand the nature of the universe.” The idea, Musk said, is that an AI that wants to understand humanity is less likely to destroy it. Musk also said he’s worried that ChatGPT “is being trained to be politically correct.” In the first of a two-part interview with Carlson, Musk also…

Apple Inc. opened its first flagship store in India in a much-anticipated launch Tuesday that highlights the company’s growing aspirations to expand in the country it also hopes to turn into a potential manufacturing hub. The company’s CEO Tim Cook posed for photos with a few of the 100 or so Apple fans who had lined up outside the sprawling 20,000-square-foot store in India’s financial capital, Mumbai, its design inspired by the iconic black-and-yellow cabs unique to the city. A second store was opened in the national capital, New Delhi. “India has such a beautiful culture and an incredible energy, and we’re excited to build on our long-standing history,” Cook said in a statement earlier. The tech giant has been operating in India for more than 25 years, selling its…

Ten electric or plug-in hybrid vehicles will be eligible for a $7,500 U.S. tax credit, while another seven could get $3,750 under new federal rules. But under the Treasury Department rules and other provisions of last year’s Inflation Reduction Act, most of the more than 60 electric or plug-in hybrids on sale in the U.S. won’t get any tax credits. That could slow acceptance of electric vehicles and could delay reaching President Joe Biden’s ambitious goal that half of new passenger vehicles sold in the U.S. run on electricity by 2030. The new rules, which govern how much battery minerals and parts can come from countries that don’t have free trade agreements with the U.S., bumped nine vehicles off the tax credit eligibility list that went into effect Jan. 1.…

Heardle, the name-that-tune game inspired by the Wordle craze, is being dropped by Spotify less than a year after the music-streaming giant acquired it. “After careful consideration, we have made the difficult decision to say goodbye to Heardle,” Spotify said in a statement. A similar announcement was posted on the Heardle homepage. First appearing in February 2022 amid a surge of games that used the format of Wordle, which the New York Times bought in January of that year, Heardle plays fleeting moments of a song and challenges users to see how quickly they can guess it. The mystery song was (spoiler alert) 1998’s “Why Don’t You Get a Job” by the Offspring. After Spotify bought Heardle in July, users could go from revealing the song to playing it on…