Innholdsfortegnelse for #621 i Techlife News

Artificial intelligence tools that can conjure whimsical artwork or realistic-looking images from written commands started wowing the public last year. But most people don’t actually use them at work or home. That could change as leading tech companies are competing to mainstream the use of text-to-image generators for a variety of tasks, integrating them into familiar tools such as Microsoft Paint, Adobe Photoshop, YouTube and ChatGPT. But first, they’re trying to convince consumers, business users and government regulators that they’ve tamed some of the Wild West nature of early AI image-generators with stronger safeguards against copyright theft and troubling content. A year ago, it was a relatively small group of early adopters and hobbyists playing with cutting-edge image generators such as Stable Diffusion, Midjourney and OpenAI’s DALL-E. “The previous ones…

The average long-term U.S. mortgage rate edged up again this week, another setback for would-be homebuyers navigating an increasingly less affordable housing market. The average rate on the benchmark 30-year home loan rose to 7.19% from 7.18% last week, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday. A year ago, the rate averaged 6.29%. Borrowing costs on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages, popular with homeowners refinancing their home loan, also rose. The average rate rose to 6.54% from 6.51% last week. A year ago, it averaged 5.44%, Freddie Mac said. High rates can add hundreds of dollars a month in costs for borrowers, limiting how much they can afford in a market already unaffordable to many Americans. They also discourage homeowners who locked in low rates two years ago from selling. “Supply may loosen…

Whilst the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max were the stars of the shows at this year’s Wonderlust Event, Apple managed to impress with the unveiling of the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus, adding features like a 48MP camera, Roadside Assistance via satellite, and Dynamic Island. INTRODUCING IPHONE 15 There’s no denying that this year was a quiet one for Apple. Although the company has updated its core iPhone and Apple Watch range at its September event, the changes were minor. As such, consumers and journalists are already thinking ahead to the potential innovations that are to come in 2024. Still, the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus still pack their punch and make great smartphones for the average consumer. One of the most intriguing features of this year’s…

The family of a North Carolina man who died after driving his car off a collapsed bridge while following Google Maps directions is suing the technology giant for negligence, claiming it had been informed of the collapse but failed to update its navigation system. Philip Paxson, a medical device salesman and father of two, drowned Sept. 30, 2022, after his Jeep Gladiator plunged into Snow Creek in Hickory, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday in Wake County Superior Court. Paxson was driving home from his daughter’s ninth birthday party through an unfamiliar neighborhood when Google Maps allegedly directed him to cross a bridge that had collapsed nine years prior and was never repaired. “Our girls ask how and why their daddy died, and I’m at a loss for words they…

As sales of electric vehicles continue to grow, so do the number of questions curious shoppers have when considering making the switch to a fully electrified car, truck or SUV. Undoubtedly, the experience of driving and owning an electric vehicle is different from the traditional one for a gas-powered vehicle. To help first-time EV shoppers, the automotive experts address the most common concerns car shoppers have about going electric. SHOULD I WORRY ABOUT RANGE ANXIETY? It’s true, no matter its price tag or performance, every EV only travels so far before the driver needs someplace to charge the vehicle’s battery. Thankfully, more and more EVs have enough range to satisfy a wide range of buyers. Consider how many miles you drive on an average day. Chances are, it’s well below…

Two of President Joe Biden ‘s top goals — fighting climate change and expanding the middle class by supporting unions — are colliding in the key battleground state of Michigan as the United Auto Workers go on strike against the country’s biggest car companies. The strike involves 13,000 workers so far, less than one-tenth of the union’s total membership, but it’s a sharp test of Biden’s ability to hold together an expansive and discordant political coalition while running for reelection. Biden is trying to turbocharge the market for electric vehicles to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and prevent China from solidifying its grip on a growing industry. His signature legislation, known as the Inflation Reduction Act, includes billions of dollars in incentives to get more clean cars on the roads. Some…

Cisco is buying the cybersecurity firm Splunk in a $28 billion deal as it bolsters its defenses against potential security threats that may be heightened by the widening use of artificial intelligence. The Silicon Valley networking tech giant will pay $157 per Splunk Inc. share. “Our combined capabilities will drive the next generation of AI-enabled security and observability,” Cisco Chair and CEO Chuck Robbins said in a prepared statement. “From threat detection and response to threat prediction and prevention, we will help make organizations of all sizes more secure and resilient.” Dan Ives of Wedbush sees the transaction as a smart move for Cisco. “Cisco is focused on the next generation of AI-enabled security and observability and Splunk’s well regarded unique platform makes this the right move at the right…

Instacart delivered in its stock market debut. The grocery delivery company’s shares __ priced at $30 per share ahead of the IPO __ hit a peak of $42.95 Tuesday in the first few minutes of trading on the Nasdaq stock exchange. They finished the day up 12.3% at $33.70, giving the company a market value of more than $11 billion. At Instacart’s San Francisco headquarters, CEO Fidji Simo and other executives celebrated the IPO by ringing a bell shaped like the company’s carrot logo. Around 1,000 employees attended, the company said. Instacart’s shares are trading under the ticker symbol “CART.” The IPO is a long-awaited step for Instacart, which was founded in 2012. The company filed privately for an IPO in May 2022 but delayed those plans last fall when…

Amazon has unveiled a slew of gadgets and an update to its popular voice assistant Alexa, infusing it with more generative AI features to better compete with other tech companies who’ve rolled out flashy chatbots. During a demonstration in Washington D.C. on Wednesday, Amazon’s devices chief Dave Limp said the latest language model will allow consumers to have more human-like conversations with a “smarter and more conversational” Alexa. The company showed different interactions through a pre-recorded video and a live demo where Alexa responds to prompts to write a poem, give ideas for a date night and provide a breakdown of a football game. Limp also demonstrated a capability where the voice assistant can prep a text message, though his exchange with Alexa included some awkward pauses where he had…

Hopes were always high for Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer.”The studio knew the film was great, and commercial. But no one in the industry expected that a long, talky, R-rated drama released at the height of the summer movie season would earn over $900 million at the box office. After an early screening, “ Dune” filmmaker Denis Villeneuve said he knew he’d just seen “a masterpiece.” He even remembered saying that it would be a big success. “But where it is right now has blown the roof off of my projection,” Villeneuve told. “It’s a three-hour movie about people talking about nuclear physics.” This week, “Oppenheimer’s” global total was nearly $913 million, making it Nolan’s third highest grossing film, trailing only the “Dark Knight” sequels. It’s also the third biggest film of…

When a small city abruptly parked all its buses to launch a publicly subsidized van service offering $1.50 trips anywhere in town, only one of its bus drivers — a big-city transplant — went along for the ride. Milton Barnes used to oversee packed subway stations in Washington, D.C., a far cry from the sparsely filled buses he drove after moving to Wilson, North Carolina, to care for his elderly parents. Although transit ridership plummeted almost everywhere due to the pandemic, it has been surging in Wilson since its September 2020 switch from a fixed-route system to an on-demand one powered by a smartphone app. “All day long I’m picking up people and dropping them off,” Barnes, 59, the only driver to work under both systems, said while driving his…

Parents whose kids bought virtual gear without their knowledge on the popular Fortnite video game could soon be able to get a refund. U.S. regulators are starting to notify more than 37 million people by email that they may be eligible for compensation as part of a legal settlement with Fortnite’s maker, Epic Games Inc. The Federal Trade Commission announced late last year that Epic Games would pay $520 million in penalties and refunds to settle complaints revolving around children’s privacy and its payment methods that tricked players into making unintended purchases. Part of that $520 million consists of $245 million in customer refunds, as part of a settlement finalized in March. It’s meant to cover some of the costs of unwanted V-Bucks, the game’s in-game currency, or virtual items…

The same Ohio river valley where the Wright brothers pioneered human flight will soon be manufacturing cutting-edge electric planes that take off and land vertically, under an agreement announced this week between the state and Joby Aviation Inc. “When you’re talking about air taxis, that’s the future,” Republican Gov. Mike DeWine told. “We find this very, very exciting — not only for the direct jobs and indirect jobs it’s going to create, but like Intel, it’s a signal to people that Ohio is looking to the future. This is a big deal for us.” Around the world, electric vertical takeoff and landing, or eVTOL aircraft are entering the mainstream, though questions remain about noise levels and charging demands. Still, developers say the planes are nearing the day when they will…

Google is introducing Bard, its artificially intelligent chatbot, to other members of its digital family — including Gmail, Maps and YouTube — as it seeks ward off competitive threats posed by similar technology run by Open AI and Microsoft. Bard’s expanded capabilities announced this week will be provided through an English-only extension that will enable users to allow the chatbot to mine information embedded in their Gmail accounts as well as pull directions from Google Maps and find helpful videos on YouTube. The extension will also open a door for Bard to fetch travel information from Google Flights and extract information from documents stored on Google Drive. Google is promising to protect users’ privacy by prohibiting human reviewers from seeing the potentially sensitive information that Bard gets from Gmail or…

A federal judge has halted implementation of a California law intended to restrict companies’ use of information gathered from young internet users in order to protect the privacy of minors. U.S. District Judge Beth Labson Freeman this week granted a preliminary injunction, saying the legislation interferes with firms’ use of the internet in ways the state has failed to justify. The law would require businesses to report to the state on any product or service they offer on the internet that is likely to be accessed by those under 18, and provide plans to reduce any harms minors might suffer. It would also prohibit businesses from collecting most types of personal information about young internet users, including their physical locations. “The State has no right to enforce obligations that would…

British lawmakers have approved an ambitious but controversial new internet safety law with wide-ranging powers to crack down on digital and social media companies like TikTok, Google, and Facebook and Instagram parent Meta. The government says the online safety bill passed this week will make Britain the safest place in the world to be online. But digital rights groups say it threatens online privacy and freedom of speech. The new law is the U.K.’s contribution to efforts in Europe and elsewhere to clamp down on the freewheeling tech industry dominated by U.S. companies. The European Union has its Digital Services Act, which took effect last month with similar provisions aimed at cleaning up social media for users in the 27-nation bloc. Here’s a closer look at Britain’s law: WHAT IS…