Innholdsfortegnelse for #675 i Techlife News

Buying a reliable used car, truck or SUV on a $15,000 budget is easy if you know what to look for. Experts have done that homework for you so you can start your search with the five recommended models listed below. RepairPal, a network of automotive repair shops, gives each one a high score for overall reliability. The vehicles also have favorable consumer reviews. As with any used vehicle purchase, the car’s history is important. Watch out for reported accidents and other problems, and avoid models showing signs of neglect or abuse. Also, have patience if you can. It’s better to wait for the right vehicle than to buy something you might not like and regret your purchase later on. SMALL CAR: 2014-2018 MAZDA 3 Fun to drive and stylish,…

Retailers are ramping up hiring for the holiday season, but fewer seasonal employees are expected to be taken on this year to help customers in stores and assemble online orders in warehouses. E-commerce giant Amazon said Thursday it will hire 250,000 full, part-time and seasonal workers for the crucial shopping period, rounding out a series of announcements made in recent weeks by the country’s top retailers. Amazon is hiring the same number of employees it did last year, similar to Bath & Body Works and Target, which said in September it planned to bring in roughly 100,000 seasonal employees and offer current employees the option to work extra hours during the holiday shopping period. Meanwhile, the department store Kohl’s encouraged people to apply for positions but stayed mum on its…

The iPhone 16 and 16 Pro models have once again revolutionized smartphone photography, continuing Apple’s legacy of pushing the boundaries of what a camera can do. Among the many impressive updates to this year’s lineup, one feature stands out as a game-changer: the new Camera Control, making capturing photos and videos more accessible than ever. INTRODUCING CAMERA CONTROL At the core of the iPhone 16’s photographic innovations lies the Camera Control, a dedicated hardware feature that merges a traditional button with touch-sensitive technology. Located two-thirds of the way down the right edge of the iPhone 16 and 16 Pro models, this button differs from any other physical control on the device. While it sits flush with the phone’s surface, it’s far more than just a basic camera shutter. The Camera…

California Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a landmark bill aimed at establishing first-in-the-nation safety measures for large artificial intelligence models. The decision is a major blow to efforts attempting to rein in the homegrown industry that is rapidly evolving with little oversight. The bill would have established some of the first regulations on large-scale AI models in the nation and paved the way for AI safety regulations across the country, supporters said. Earlier this month, the Democratic governor told an audience at Dreamforce, an annual conference hosted by software giant Salesforce, that California must lead in regulating AI in the face of federal inaction but that the proposal “can have a chilling effect on the industry.” The proposal, which drew fierce opposition from startups, tech giants and several Democratic House members,…

DirecTV is buying Dish and Sling, a deal it has sought to complete for years, as the company seeks to better compete against streaming services that have become dominant. DirecTV said this week that it will acquire Dish TV and Sling TV from its owner EchoStar in a debt exchange transaction that includes a payment of $1, plus the assumption of approximately $9.8 billion in debt. The prospect of a DirecTV-Dish combo has long been rumored, with headlines about reported talks popping up over the years. And the two almost merged more than two decades ago — but the Federal Communications Commission blocked their owners’ then-$18.5 billion deal, citing antitrust concerns. The pay-for-TV market has shifted significantly since. As more and more consumers tune into online streaming giants, demand for…

Parents in California who profit from social media posts featuring their children will be required to set aside some earnings for their minor influencers under a pair of measures signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom. California led the nation nearly 80 years ago in setting ground rules to protect child performers from financial abuse, but those regulations needed updating, Newsom said. The existing law covers children working in movies and TV but doesn’t extend to minors making their names on platforms such as TikTok and Instagram. Family-style vlogs, where influencers share details of their daily lives with countless strangers on the internet, have become a popular and lucrative way to earn money for many. Besides coordinated dances and funny toddler comments, family vlogs nowadays may share intimate details of their children’s…

The federal government gave a key approval this week to an offshore wind farm in New Jersey, even as residents in the town where its power cable would come ashore worry it could go through underground toxic waste that’s still being cleaned up. The U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management approved Atlantic Shores’ plan to construct and operate an energy facility, a major milestone in moving the project forward. The project still requires a review by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and several state permits, the company said. The project, consisting of two phases, would be built between Atlantic City and Long Beach Island in southern New Jersey. It would generate 2,800 megawatts from 197 turbines, enough to power 1 million homes. “Atlantic Shores is thrilled to receive approval…

Google is injecting its search engine with more artificial intelligence that will enable people to voice questions about images and occasionally organize an entire page of results, despite the technology’s past misadventures with misleading information. The latest changes announced Thursday herald the next step in an AI-driven makeover that Google launched in mid-May when it began responding to some queries with summaries written by the technology at the top of its influential results page. Those summaries, dubbed “AI Overviews,” raised fears among publishers that fewer people would click on search links to their websites and undercut the traffic needed to sell digital ads that help finance their operations. Google is addressing some of those ongoing worries by inserting even more links to other websites within the AI Overviews, which already…

Filmmaker Chris Sanders had finally cracked “The Wild Robot.” Peter Brown’s middle-grade book, about an intelligent robot living in the wilderness, had been sitting on the shelf at DreamWorks Animation for a bit. No one had quite figured it out. Then Sanders, the man behind beloved animated features from “Lilo & Stitch” to “How to Train Your Dragon,” came along. His vision, however, was different from the norm: The story started without zippy dialogue and didn’t follow traditional beats. He also wanted to embrace a more illustrated style that melded analog warmth with computer generated imagery capabilities, which was finally technologically possible. Before he got too deep, he needed to make sure the studio was on board. “They said, ‘That’s the reason we bought the book. We want to do…

Video game maker Epic Games sued Google and Samsung this week, accusing the tech companies of coordinating to block third-party competition in application distribution on Samsung devices. At issue is Samsung’s “Auto Blocker” feature, which only allows for apps from authorized sources, such as the Samsung Galaxy Store or Google Play Store, to be installed. The feature is turned on by default but can be changed in a phone’s settings. The tool prevents the installation of applications from unauthorized sources and blocks “malicious activity,” according to Samsung. In a lawsuit filed in San Francisco federal court — Epic’s second against Google — the company said Auto Blocker “is virtually guaranteed to entrench Google’s dominance over Android app distribution.” Epic, developer of the popular game “Fortnite,” filed the suit to prevent…

Toyota is investing another $500 million in Joby Aviation as part of a partnership aimed at helping get the American air taxi company’s commercial business off the ground. Toyota’s investment will be used to support certification and production of Joby’s electric air taxi, the companies said this week, and brings Toyota Motor Corporation’s total investment in Joby to $894 million. After the investment, which will come in two equal tranches later this year and next, Toyota will own about 22% of Joby’s outstanding shares. “Today’s investment builds on nearly seven years of collaboration between our companies,” said JoeBen Bevirt, founder and CEO, Joby Aviation. “The knowledge and support shared by Toyota has been instrumental in Joby’s success and we look forward to deepening our relationship as we deliver on our…

SpaceX launched a rescue mission for the two stuck astronauts at the International Space Station, sending up a downsized crew to bring them home but not until next year. The capsule rocketed into orbit to fetch the test pilots whose Boeing spacecraft returned to Earth empty earlier this month because of safety concerns. The switch in rides left it to NASA’s Nick Hague and Russia’s Alexander Gorbunov to retrieve Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams. Because NASA rotates space station crews approximately every six months, this newly launched flight with two empty seats reserved for Wilmore and Williams won’t return until late February. Officials said there wasn’t a way to bring them back earlier on SpaceX without interrupting other scheduled missions. By the time they return, the pair will have logged…

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway is buying the rest of its utility unit from the estate of a longtime board member who died three years ago, but it’s not clear exactly how much it will pay for that 8% stake in the massive utility business. Berkshire Hathaway Energy said in a regulatory filing Tuesday that it will pay Walter Scott’s family $2.4 billion cash and issue a number of Class B Berkshire shares that are equivalent to 1.6 million shares of the utility business, but since the utility’s shares aren’t publicly traded it is hard to estimate the total value of the deal that’s expected to close later this year. Altogether, Berkshire is buying more than 4.4 million shares in the utilities to give it 100% ownership. “That filing left me…

Freddie Pell helps lift a vintage wooden chair off the sidewalk and back inside his art gallery. It’s starting to rain in downtown Boone, and he doesn’t want it to get soaked — again. Inside, vast muddy puddles spread across the room as workers use mops to push the water out the door. A thin dark line on the wall — about a foot up from the floor — shows how high the water rose when Tropical Storm Helene came barreling through, Pell said. “Luckily, most of our art is on the wall,” Pell said, gesturing to the vibrant paintings and prints crafted by local artists. In the days after Helene razed much of western North Carolina, some store owners in downtown Boone have a lot of cleanup to do…

OpenAI’s history as a nonprofit research institute that also sells commercial products like ChatGPT may be coming to an end as the San Francisco company looks to more fully convert itself into a for-profit corporation accountable to shareholders. The artificial intelligence company’s board is considering a decision that would change OpenAI into a public benefit corporation, according to a source familiar with the discussions who wasn’t authorized to speak publicly about them. While OpenAI already has a for-profit division, where most of its staff works, it is controlled by a nonprofit board of directors whose mission is to help humanity. That would change if the company converts the core of its structure to a public benefit corporation, which is a type of corporate entity that is supposed to help society…

Low interest financing, sweet lease deals, price cuts and free charging boosted Tesla’s global deliveries in the third quarter, the first increase this year for the electric vehicle maker. The Austin, Texas, company said this week that it delivered 462,890 vehicles from July through September, bolstered by loans as low as 1.99%, and $299 monthly leases on the Model 3, its least expensive vehicle. It delivered 435,059 vehicles during the same period last year. The figures for July through September came in slightly higher than analyst estimates of 462,000 for the period, according to data provider FactSet. However, shares of Tesla Inc. dropped sharply in morning trading, down nearly 4%. The deliveries were “good and a step in the right direction,” wrote Dan Ives of Wedbush, but that there would…

Arkansas sued YouTube and parent company Alphabet this week, saying the video-sharing platform is made deliberately addictive and fueling a mental health crisis among youth in the state. Attorney General Tim Griffin’s office filed the lawsuit in state court, accusing them of violating the state’s deceptive trade practices and public nuisance laws. The lawsuit claims the site is addictive and has resulted in the state spending millions on expanded mental health and other services for young people. “YouTube amplifies harmful material, doses users with dopamine hits, and drives youth engagement and advertising revenue,” the lawsuit said. “As a result, youth mental health problems have advanced in lockstep with the growth of social media, and in particular, YouTube.” Alphabet’s Google, which owns the video service and is also named as a…

A code of conduct will be enforced on the online dating industry to better protect Australian users after research found that three-in-four people suffer some form of sexual violence through the platforms, Australia’s government said this week. Bumble, Grindr and Match Group Inc., a Texas-based company that owns platforms including Tinder, Hinge, OKCupid and Plenty of Fish, have agreed to the code that took effect, Communications Minister Michelle Rowland said. The platforms, which account for 75% of the industry in Australia, have until April 1 to implement the changes before they are strictly enforced, Rowland said. The code requires the platforms’ systems to detect potential incidents of online-enabled harm and demands that the accounts of some offenders are terminated. Complaint and reporting mechanisms are to be made prominent and transparent.…