Innholdsfortegnelse for #619 i Techlife News

Google will soon require that political ads using artificial intelligence be accompanied by a prominent disclosure if imagery or sounds have been synthetically altered. Starting in November, just under a year before the U.S. presidential election, Google said in an update to its political content policy affecting YouTube and other services that disclosure of AI to alter images must be clear and conspicuous and be located somewhere that users are likely to notice it. Though fake images, videos or audio clips are not new to political advertising, generative AI tools are making it easier to do, and more realistic. Some presidential campaigns in the 2024 race — including that of Florida GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis — already are using the technology. The Republican National Committee in April released an entirely…

In recent years, Apple’s iPad upgrades have been fairly modest, but an anticipated 2024 overhaul of the iPad Pro promises a departure from this trend. It stands poised to be the most significant update to the line since 2018, aiming to rekindle consumer interest in the tablet market and change the game once again for the world’s most iconic tablet brand. A NEW ERA FOR IPAD Apple’s iPad lineup, once viewed as the natural successor to the Mac, is currently generating the least revenue among Apple’s primary segments. With unit shipments decreasing by 17% in the second quarter and iPad revenue falling 20% YoY during its fiscal third quarter, the tablet market is in a slump, and Apple has not been immune to these woes. But there’s more to this…

Elon Musk said that his social network X, formerly known as Twitter, will give users the ability to make voice and video calls on the platform. Musk, who has a history of making proclamations about coming features and policies that have not always come to fruition, did not say when the features would be available to users. The company also updated its privacy policies that will allow for the collection of biometric data and employment history, among other information. Musk posted on the former Twitter that the site’s voice and video calls will work on Apple and Android devices as well as on computers, with “No phone numbers needed.” Rival social platforms already offer voice and video calls. Meta, which owns Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram, introduced voice and video calls…

Silicon Valley billionaires behind a secretive $800 million land-buying spree in Northern California have finally released some details about their plans for a new green city, but they still must win over skeptical voters and local leaders. After years of ducking scrutiny, Jan Sramek, the former Goldman Sachs trader spearheading the effort, launched a website about “California Forever.” The site billed the project as “a chance for a new community, good paying local jobs, solar farms, and open space” in Solano, a rural county between San Francisco and Sacramento that is now home to 450,000 people. He also began meeting with key politicians representing the area who have been trying unsuccessfully for years to find out who was behind the mysterious Flannery Associates LLC as it bought up huge swaths…

Roku is cutting about 10% of its workforce, or 360 people, and it will limit new hiring as it cuts costs to stem a series of quarterly losses. The streaming platform also said in a regulatory filing Wednesday that it expects adjusted third-quarter revenue of between $835 million and $875 million, which is much better than the $828.6 million that Wall Street was projecting, according to analysts polled by FactSet. Shares, which have already doubled since the start of the year, rose another 6%. Roku Inc. anticipates a restructuring charge of $45 million to $65 million related to the job cuts. The charge will mostly include severance and benefits costs, with the majority of the charge expected to occur in its fiscal third quarter. The Silicon Valley company also expects…

The European Union this week targeted Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Google parent Alphabet, Facebook owner Meta and TikTok parent ByteDance under new digital rules aimed at reining in the market power of online companies. The six companies were classed as online “gatekeepers” that must face the highest level of scrutiny under the 27-nation bloc’s Digital Markets Act. The act amounts to a list of do’s and don’ts that seeks to prevent tech giants from cornering new digital markets, with the threat of whopping fines or even the possibility of a company breakup. It’s part of a sweeping update to the EU’s digital rulebook that’s starting to take force this year, and comes weeks after a companion package of rules aimed at keeping internet users safe, the Digital Services Act, started kicking…

Oregon-based battery parts producer Entek broke ground Wednesday on a $1.5 billion manufacturing campus in western Indiana that officials said will create more than 640 jobs and give a boost to Indiana’s growing electric vehicle industry. Gov. Eric Holcomb joined Entek executives and others at the Terre Haute groundbreaking for the planned 1.4-million-square foot (130,000-square meter) complex, with Holcomb calling it “a great day for Terre Haute and for the state of Indiana.” Entek, based in Lebanon, Oregon, makes battery separators for lithium-ion battery manufacturers. The company, which announced the project in March, said its new Terre Haute manufacturing campus will produce enough battery separators per year to supply material for about 1.4 million vehicles annually. “This decision cements Indiana’s leadership in the electric vehicle supply chain sector, and we…

Apple announced this week that the new visionOS App Store will be made available in a developer beta release this fall. The App Store will include apps and games built for visionOS. In addition to this, it will also offer iPhone and iPad apps that are able to run on the Vision Pro headset. By default, iPhone and iPad apps will be published automatically on the visionOS App Store, as most frameworks in iOS and iPadOS are included in the new platform. If an app requires a feature that is not available on Apple Vision Pro, App Store Connect will inform the app developer that it is not compatible and will need updates before it is made available to consumers. Developers who need to make changes can use the Spatial…

United Airlines said that a software update triggered a glitch that forced it to halt departures nationwide, briefly crippling one of the nation’s biggest carriers on a busy travel day. Federal officials said United crews had been unable to contact airline dispatchers through normal means. “A software update caused a widespread slowdown in United’s technology systems,” United said in a statement. The airline said it was not a cybersecurity issue. The Federal Aviation Administration, which runs the nation’s airspace, said United asked it to stop the airline’s departures nationwide. The FAA said the issue was limited to United and its subsidiaries. The ground stop — it did not affect planes already in the air, United said — lasted a little more than an hour. By late afternoon Tuesday on the…

Looking to close its digital divide, Kentucky will use a $386 million investment to expand access to high-speed internet to more than 42,600 homes and businesses, Gov. Andy Beshear said this week. It amounts to a record investment of broadband money for Kentucky, a combination of public and private sector funds that will be spread broadly among 46 counties, Beshear said. It’s the next phase of a bipartisan policy goal to connect every Kentucky home and business to reliable, high-speed internet. “High-speed internet is no longer a luxury,” the Democratic governor said at a news conference. “It is an absolute infrastructure necessity.” Kentucky policymakers are pursuing a long-term effort to connect areas with no internet access or chronically slow service. The persistent lack of access in some parts of the…

Home-sharing giant Airbnb said it has had to stop accepting some reservations in New York City as new regulations on short-term rentals went into effect Tuesday that will mean big changes for travelers hoping to avoid the high cost of a Big Apple hotel. The new rules are intended to effectively end a free-for-all in which city landlords and residents have been renting out their apartments by the week or the night to tourists or others in town for short stays. Under the new system, rentals shorter than 30 days are only allowed if hosts register with the city. Hosts must commit to being physically present in the home for the duration of the rental, sharing living quarters with their guest. More than two guests at a time are not…

All 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico have reached an agreement in principle with Google to settle a lawsuit filed in 2021 over the tech giant’s alleged monopolistic control of app distribution for the software that runs most of the world’s cellphones. The agreement, cited in a court filing reached Tuesday, is subject to approval by the plaintiffs’ attorneys general and the board of directors of Google’s parent company, execution of an agreement, and court approval. The terms of the temporary pact bar the parties from disclosing its details for now, according to the Utah attorney general’s office, a lead plaintiff in the bipartisan action. “No company is too big to play by the rules, including Google. We brought this lawsuit because it is illegal to use…

Both sides of a dispute that has left nearly 15 million cable TV subscribers without ESPN or other networks affiliated with The Walt Disney Co. are directing customers to other services where they can watch television. The offers speak to the unusual nature of the business dispute between Disney and Charter Communications, and doesn’t auger a quick resolution. Charter is telling its Spectrum TV customers about a special deal being offered by the Fubo live television streaming service to get two months at discounts of 25% or 30%, depending on the plan. “I’ve covered carriage disputes for more years than I would like to remember, and I don’t recall a TV provider ever offering its customers a discount to another TV provider during a channel blackout,” wrote journalist Phillip Swann,…

Cars are getting an “F” in data privacy. Most major manufacturers admit they may be selling your personal information, a new study finds, with half also saying they would share it with the government or law enforcement without a court order. The proliferation of sensors in automobiles — from telematics to fully digitized control consoles — has made them prodigious data-collection hubs. But drivers are given little or no control over the personal data their vehicles collect, researchers for the nonprofit Mozilla Foundation said Wednesday in their latest “Privacy Not Included” survey Security standards are also vague, a big concern given automakers’ track record of susceptibility to hacking. “Cars seem to have really flown under the privacy radar and I’m really hoping that we can help remedy that because they…

Delta Air Lines said that it has completed upgrading its fleet to protect key equipment against interference from 5G wireless signals, plugging a hole that could have disrupted flights during low visibility. The airline said all its planes in active use now have radio altimeters that are protected against interference. “This means no Delta aircraft will be subject to additional weather-driven constraints,” a Delta spokesman said. In late June, 190 of Delta’s roughly 900 planes lacked the upgraded altimeters. Those devices use radio signals to precisely measure the height of a plane above the ground. The issue forced Delta to consider rerouting those planes to avoid low-visibility situations while it waited for new parts from a supplier, although the airline said that it got through summer without notable problems with…

Fall is coming, and so are the movies. OK, not all the movies. Some of them, like “Dune: Part Two,” have been postponed until next year due to the ongoing actors and writers strikes. But most of the film calendar has stayed intact — for now. Just like summer, there are plenty of sequels and prequels on the way. A second “Nun,” a third “My Big Fat Greek Wedding,” a fourth “Expendables” and a 10th “Saw.” But many of the most anticipated titles are awards contenders, historical epics and festival hits. Here’s a look at some of the highlights of the next three months. MOVIES RELEASING IN SEPTEMBER “Cassandro” (in theaters Sept. 15, streams on Prime Video Sept. 22) Gael García Bernal gives one of his best performances in Roger…

TikTok said this week that operations are underway at the first of its three European data centers, part of the popular Chinese owned app’s effort to ease Western fears about privacy risks. The video sharing app said it began transferring European user information to a data center in Dublin. Two more data centers, another in Ireland and one in Norway, are under construction, TikTok said in an update on its plan to localize European user data, dubbed Project Clover. TikTok has been under scrutiny by European and American regulators over concerns that sensitive user data may end up in China. TikTok is owned by ByteDance, a Chinese company that moved its headquarters to Singapore in 2020. TikTok unveiled its plan earlier this year to store data in Europe, where there…