Innholdsfortegnelse for #294 i Techlife News

Researchers have found a troubling new form of power grid-wrecking software, tying the discovery to a recent Ukrainian blackout in tworeports published this week. The malicious software has the ability to remotely sabotage circuit breakers, switches and protection relays, the reports say, a nightmare scenario for those charged with keeping the lights on. “The potential impact of malware like this is huge,” said Robert Lipovsky, a researcher with Slovakian anti-virus firm ESET, which first obtained the rogue program. “It’s not restricted to Ukraine. The industrial hardware that the malware communicates with is used in critical infrastructure worldwide.” Policymakers have long worried over programs that can remotely sabotage industrial systems because of their potential to deal catastrophic damage across the internet. Examples of hackers being able to turn off the lights…

Science is worthless if it isn’t motivated by basic human values and the desire to help people, Apple CEO Tim Cook told graduates of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on Friday, urging them to use their powers for good. In a commencement address, Cook - who as Apple’s chief executive since 2011 has overseen the rollout of the iPhone 7 and the Apple Watch - said the company is constantly looking for ways to combine tech with a sense of humanity and compassion. “Whatever you do in your life, and whatever we do at Apple, we must infuse it with the humanity that we are born with,” said Cook, who previously served as chief operating officer and headed the Macintosh division. “That responsibility is immense. But so is the opportunity,”…

Verizon has taken over Yahoo, completing a $4.5 billion deal that will usher in a new management team to attempt to wring more advertising revenue from one of the internet’s best-known brands. Tuesday’s closure of the sale ends Yahoo’s 21-year history as a publicly traded company. It also ends the nearly five-year reign of Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, who isn’t joining Verizon. She will walk away from Yahoo with a compensation package currently worth about $125 million, including her severance pay and stock awards that will be fully vested with the deal’s completion. Yahoo’s email and other digital services such as sports, finance and news will be run by Tim Armstrong, who has been running AOL since Verizon bought that company for $4.4 billion two years ago. Armstrong will now…

A SMART HOME HUB WITH HOMEKIT AT THE CENTER Apple had long been rumored to be readying a smart speaker to challenge the Amazon Echo and Google Home - and, this month finally unveiled it. It’s called the HomePod and has Siri built-in for answering a broad array of queries and controlling HomeKit-compatible smart home appliances. However, there’s a lot more to the HomePod than even all of that. Apple has primarily billed it as set to revolutionize home-based music-listening, hinting at a somewhat unorthodox strategy. A TYPICALLY APPLE TAKE ON THE SMART SPEAKER Many aspects of the HomePod shouldn’t overly surprise; in fact, in many ways, it is a very Apple-like approach to the smart speaker. With its 6.8-inch-tall and 5.6-inch-wide body covered almost entirely by a mesh fabric,…

“The Space Between the Stars” (Berkley), by Anne Corlett. Jamie Allenby, veterinary scientist on the planet Soltaire, has a lot on her mind in “The Space Between the Stars,” a debut novel by Anne Corlett. She’s not sure if she misses Daniel, her lover of 13 years. His last known address was on another planet. When they separated, she told him she needed space. Now she has more space than she bargained for because she may be the only survivor of an interstellar supervirus. Finding other survivors is Jamie’s first concern. Then she needs to get to Earth. Jamie and Daniel once promised to meet on the Northumberland coast of England in the event of an apocalypse. She must fulfill that pledge. But she’s reluctant. Daniel wasn’t all that great.…

The audience for “Wonder Woman” slid less in the film’s second week than any superhero film in more than a decade, leaving the acclaimed Warner Bros. release no. 1 for the second week. “Wonder Woman” sold $58.5 million in tickets over the weekend in North America, according to final box-office figures Monday. Even in its second weekend, “Wonder Woman” thumped the newly released, terribly reviewed “The Mummy,” which debuted poorly with $31.7 million. The Tom Cruise-led “Mummy” launches Universal’s “Dark Universe,” the studio’s big-budget gambit for a Marvel-like franchise of monster movies. The top 20 movies at U.S. and Canadian theaters Friday through Sunday, followed by distribution studio, gross, number of theater locations, average receipts per location, total gross and number of weeks in release, as compiled Monday by comScore:…

Facebook says it’s using artificial intelligence to help it combat terrorists’ use of its platform. The company’s announcement comes as it faces growing pressure from government leaders to identify and prevent the spread of content from terrorist groups on its massive social network. Facebook officials said in a blog post Thursday that the company uses AI to find and remove “terrorist content” immediately, before users see it. This is a departure from Facebook’s usual policy of only reporting suspect content if users report it first. They also say that when the company receives reports of potential “terrorism posts,” it reviews those reports urgently. In addition, it says that in the rare cases when it uncovers evidence of imminent harm, it promptly informs authorities.…

U.S. officials are blaming the North Korean government for a series of cyberattacks dating to 2009 against media, aerospace, financial sectors and infrastructure in the United States and around the world. The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security issued a warning this week, saying the cyberattacks were carried out by actors within the North Korean government who are known as “Hidden Cobra.” “DHS and FBI assess that Hidden Cobra actors will continue to use cyber operations to advance their government’s military and strategic objectives,” the alert said. U.S. officials are distributing internet addresses to help networks defend against any attacks. The FBI said it has high confidence that the internet addresses are linked to systems infected with Hidden Cobra malware to further exploit networks. The cyberattacks targeted weaknesses in…

Die-hard Star Wars fans will need to rely on more than the force if they want to bid on an R2-D2 droid that appeared in several of the franchise’s movies. A couple million dollars might also help. Luke Skywalker’s lightsaber, Darth Vader’s helmet and shoulder armor, as well as imperial and rebel weapons are on the block, but the centerpiece is no doubt the squat blue, white and silver droid famous for communicating in a series of electronic beeps and squeaks. Representing “the pinnacle of the Star Wars collecting universe,” it could fetch up to $2 million in the June 26-28 auction, according to Calabasas, California-based auction house Profiles in History. The bidding is being handled by Boston-based online auction marketplace Invaluable. Nothing like a complete R2 unit has ever…

Pandora is raising cash to help it take on Spotify and other streaming music services. The online music service is selling a 19 percent stake in its business to satellite radio company Sirius XM for $480 million. Pandora will pay a $22.5 million breakup fee to private equity firm KKR for breaking up a previously agreed $150 million deal. Pandora, which is based in Oakland, California, will raise another $200 million selling its Ticketfly ticket service to Eventbrite - a service Pandora bought for $450 million in 2015. Pandora works as an internet radio, and most users listen for free. But its financial losses have deepened in the past few years while its user base has been stagnant, and in March it launched a subscription service that copied the strategy…

Freewheeling Uber faces major change. Its board is cracking down, its founder and CEO is stepping away indefinitely, and the company itself is coming to grips with measures intended to reform its toxic culture and aggressive business practices. And it all started when Susan Fowler, a former Uber engineer, posted a personal essay in February that detailed the company’s toleration of sexual harassment and discrimination. Had she not come forward in such a public manner, it’s possible none of this would have happened. “What she did took real courage,” said Elizabeth Ames, a senior vice president at the Anita Borg Institute, a nonprofit founded to advance women in the technology business. “There are many women in companies and technical worlds (who) step up and talk about this problem. And often…

Life A team of scientists aboard the International Space Station discover a terrifying life form that caused extinction on Mars and now threatens the crew and all life on Earth. FIVE FACTS: 1. The movie was inspired by Alien (1979). 2. There is a fan theory that this film is a prequel to Venom (2018). 3. Ryan Reynolds intended to play the main character, but scheduling conflicts with The Hitman’s Bodygaurd (2017) forced him to take a supporting role instead. 4. In a TV spot commercial, it was revealed that the movie used old b-roll footage from Spiderman 3 (2007). 5. This is the second film written by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick to feature Ryan Reynolds. The first was Deadpool (2016). A Cure for Wellness An ambitious executive (Dane…

Three films in, it’s time to ask some hard questions about the world of “Cars.” What are their interiors like? Brains and a heart or plush leather seating and cup holders? Do they pay life or car insurance? And where, good God, have all the people gone? Are they, as I fear, hidden away in the trunks? While the cycle of life and death is movingly detailed in most every Pixar movie, particularly in the “Toy Story” series, the aluminum-thin world of “Cars” has always been the exception. The movies and their windshield-eyed cars have none of the existential soul of “Inside Out” or “Finding Nemo.”They’re fun enough - and still dazzlingly animated - but they’re Pixar on cruise control. Yet kids - boys especially - love them, and so…

Online lender and financial startup SoFi has taken the first step toward competing with the nation’s biggest banks on their home turf: the checking account. Last week, the San Francisco provider of student and personal loans submitted an application for federal deposit insurance, a protection normally only available to conventional banks. In its application, the company said its SoFi Bank subsidiary will offer bread-and-butter banking products, including checking accounts, debit cards and eventually credit cards. SoFi is one of a wave of new financial-technology, or “fintech,” startups that aim to reengineer the way Americans manage their savings, take out loans and pay for things. The company, whose name comes from the moniker Social Finance, was founded in 2011 with a focus on refinancing student loans. The company quickly branched into…

French President Emmanuel Macron is inviting the world’s innovators, engineers and business-builders to come to France as he tries to transform this country from a land resting on the laurels of its past into a “startup nation.” In a first step, the French government on Thursday launched a “French Tech Visa,” a fast-track four-year residence permit for entrepreneurs and their families if they meet certain criteria. Echoing his call for U.S. climate scientists to come to France after President Donald Trump pulled out of the Paris climate agreement, Macron said Thursday - in English: “At a time when some people think that walls are a solution, we do think that openness is the right path, because the challenges we face are global. “We want the pioneers, the innovators, the entrepreneurs…

Japanese internet, solar and technology company SoftBank Group Corp. is buying robotics pioneer Boston Dynamics from Alphabet Inc., Google’s parent. Terms of the deal, announced last Friday (09), including when it might close, were not disclosed. Tokyo-based SoftBank, which offers the chatty childlike Pepper companion robot, said the purchase underlines how robotics is a key part of its business. Boston Dynamics makes various robots, including Big Dog and Spot, which are complex machines that walk and trot on four legs. Another is Atlas, which walks on two legs like a human. Atlas has arms and can open doors and lift items. Some were designed for military purposes. Under Friday’s deal, SoftBank is also buying from Alphabet a company called Schaft that develops biped robots. Schaft’s roots are in a research…

A security researcher disclosed a gaping security hole at the outfit that manages Georgia’s election technology, days before the state holds a closely watched congressional runoff vote on June 20. The security failure left the state’s 6.7 million voter records and other sensitive files exposed to hackers, and may have been left unpatched for seven months. The revealed files might have allowed attackers to plant malware and possibly rig votes or wreak chaos with voter rolls during elections. Georgia is especially vulnerable to such disruption, as the entire state relies on antiquated touchscreen voting machines that provide no hardcopy record of votes, making it all but impossible to tell if anyone has manipulated the tallies. The true dimensions of the failure were first reported Wednesday by Politico Magazine . The…

Twitter has unveiled a new look, and much like some previous changes the company has made to its short-messaging service, it’s not going over so well with the Twitterati. The San Francisco company says the new design emphasizes simplicity, making it faster and easier to use, with bolder headlines and more intuitive icons. It also changed users’ profile images from square-shaped to round. Twitter users immediately responded this week by tweeting jokes and memes critical of the changes. There were almost 30,000 tweets about the new user interface, or UI, within hours of the change, the vast majority of them either complaining about the new look or mocking it. Twitter also took heat from users last year when it changed its algorithm that orders the tweets users see.…

The winning bid for a private lunch with billionaire Warren Buffett may top several million dollars in an online auction to benefit a California homeless charity that wraps up last Friday night. For the 18th consecutive year, Buffett is auctioning off a lunch to raise money for the Glide Foundation, which helps homeless people in San Francisco. The chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway has raised nearly $24 million through the auctions. Last year’s winner paid $3,456,789, which tied the record set in 2012. Buffett has praised the charity for the work it does helping people. Buffett became a believer in Glide’s work after his first wife, Susie Buffett, showed him what the group was doing for the poor and homeless. Susie Buffett had volunteered for the San Francisco charity…

The electronic bleeps and squawks of “Tetris,” ‘’Donkey Kong” and other generation-shaping games that you may never have thought of as musical are increasingly likely to be playing at a philharmonic concert hall near you. From the “ping ... ping” of Atari’s 1972 groundbreaking paddle game “Pong,” the sounds, infectious ditties and, with time, fully-formed orchestral scores that are an essential part of the sensory thrill for gamers have formed a musical universe. With its own culture, sub-cultures and fans, game music now thrives alone, free from the consoles from which it came. When audiences pack the Philharmonie de Paris’ concert halls this weekend to soak in the sounds of a chamber orchestra and the London Symphony Orchestra performing game music and an homage to one of the industry’s stars,…

Ti Amo Phoenix The sixth album from French band Phoenix includes ten meticulously constructed tracks of glossy soft-pop romance. The tracks ‘Fior di Latte’ and ‘J-Boy’ will have you hooked at first listen with vocal effects that wouldn’t go amiss in a sci-fi music video. FIVE FACTS: 1. As a French band, Phoenix was initially unpopular in the country because they chose to sing in English. 2. The band are huge R Kelly fans and got the singer to join them on stage at Coachella to do a mashup. 3. Frontman Thomas Mars is married to the director Sofia Coppola. 4. The band doesn’t have a permanent drummer or keyboard player. 5. They started off playing cover songs in bars. Truth is a Beautiful Thing (Deluxe) London Grammar The second…

The Grammys Awards are transitioning to online voting and have updated rules for its top category, album of the year. The Recording Academy announced new changes Wednesday, including its official switch to online voting for its 13,000 members. Voting for the 2018 Grammy Awards will take place in the fall and will include songs and albums released between Oct. 1, 2016, and Sept. 30, 2017. Bill Freimuth, the academy’s senior vice president of awards, said the academy expects to attract younger voters and touring musicians who are away from home during voting season. “It is something that has been long-desired, long-talked about and long-investigated,” he said of online voting, which comes a year after the Latin Grammys made the switch. Freimuth said there were concerns about security issues, but added…

The next Lyft car you book may soon be a Jaguar or a Land Rover. The British company behind the two iconic car brands announced Monday that it was investing $25 million into Lyft to help the ride-hailing business expand and develop technologies. As part of the investment, Jaguar Land Rover agreed to supply a fleet of its vehicles. The investment is from InMotion Ventures, a unit of Jaguar Land Rover that focuses on autonomous cars and other technology. The collaboration will provide a “real-world platform helping us develop our connected and autonomous services,” InMotion Managing Director Sebastian Peck said. InMotion earlier invested in SPLT, a Detroit-based digital carpool business. SPLT works with Lyft to provide non-emergency medical transport. Lyft announced earlier this month that it was forming a research…

Ping! Tweet! Ring! Swoosh! Every command from a mobile phone that European Union holidaymakers or business people made Thursday must have felt like deliverance. As of June 15, there will officially be no more extra fees for using an EU handset in another EU country, the dreaded roaming charges that could add hundreds of euros to a vacation bill. “It was about time! We should have done it from the beginning because there are only benefits,” said Malika Schreiber, a teacher from Frankfurt who was chaperoning 45 pupils under the Eiffel Tower during a school trip. Depending on the number of wayward kids calling her, her bill could sometimes swell by 100 euros ($111). Not anymore. “Now I am happy that everyone can reach me every day,” Schreiber said. The…

Future accidental radiation releases at the largest U.S. site of waste from nuclear weapons production are likely following back-to-back emergency evacuations of workers in May and June because aging infrastructure is breaking down, the top Energy Department official at the site told. Adding to the likelihood of more nuclear mishaps at the sprawling Hanford Nuclear Reservation is inadequate government funding to quickly clean up the millions of gallons of toxic nuclear waste at the site, said Doug Shoop, who runs the department’s operations office at Hanford. Hanford has an annual budget of $2.3 billion for cleanup but Shoop said it will cost at least $100 billion to clean up the highly toxic radioactive and chemical wastes on the 580-square mile (1,502 square kilometer) site which produced up to 70 percent…