Innholdsfortegnelse for #297 i Techlife News

A solar-powered drone backed by Facebook that could one day provide worldwide internet access has quietly completed a test flight in Arizona after an earlier attempt ended with a crash landing. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s long-term plan for the drone, called Aquila, is to have it and others provide internet access to 4 billion people around the world who are currently in the dark. “When Aquila is ready, it will be a fleet of solar-powered planes that will beam internet connectivity across the world,” he wrote on Facebook. The drone’s second flight was completed in May at Yuma Proving Ground, The Yuma Sun reported (http://bit.ly/2tzuWhB). The drone flew with more sensors, new spoilers and a horizontal propeller stopping system to help it better land after the crash in December. It…

Volvo will begin producing electric motors on all its cars from 2019, becoming the first traditional automaker to forgo the combustion engine altogether. The Swedish company, which has been making cars since 1927 and has in recent decades become famous for its station wagons and safety features, said Wednesday that the decision was prompted by the wishes of customers, describing it as “one of the most significant moves by any car maker.” Volvo Cars said it aims to reach its target of selling 1 million electrified cars by 2025, with a range of models, including fully electric vehicles and hybrid cars. “This announcement marks the end of the solely combustion engine-powered car,” CEO Hakan Samuelsson said. “People increasingly demand electrified cars and we want to respond to our customers’ current…

Electric car maker Tesla says its keenly awaited Model 3 car for the masses will go on sale on Friday (07). CEO Elon Musk made the announcement this week on Twitter. The car is to start around $35,000 and with a $7,500 federal electric car tax credit, could cost $27,500. Tesla says the five-seat car will be able to go 215 miles (133 kilometers) on a single charge and will be sporty, accelerating from zero to 60 miles per hour in under six seconds. Musk had said that production was on track to start in July, but Tesla has often faced delays in getting vehicles to market. The Palo Alto, California-based company aims to make 5,000 Model 3 sedans per week by the end of this year and 10,000 per…

British billionaire Richard Branson’s prolific Virgin brand has spanned a broad range of businesses, including record stores, banks, phones, airlines and spaceships. He’s now trying to help Sprint revitalize its Virgin Mobile brand in a U.S. wireless market that’s gotten so competitive that unlimited-data deals, once rare, are the norm. Discounts and freebies are plentiful at the major wireless carriers. Virgin Mobile is phasing out Android phones and transforming itself into an iPhone-only carrier with an eye-catching price: Buy an iPhone and pay $1 for unlimited data for six months (or one year if you sign up by the end of July). Service normally is $50 a month. Branson spoke with The Associated Press about the Virgin brand and why loving an airline may or may not nudge someone into…

“The Man of Legends” (47North), by Kenneth Johnson Kenneth Johnson, who has worked on TV shows such as “The Six Million Dollar Man,”‘’The Incredible Hulk” and “V,” adds to his repertoire with the engaging novel “The Man of Legends.” A 33-year-old named Will contemplates his life and the various choices he has made. He doesn’t age and cannot die, and in a similar vein to Forrest Gump, Will has directly interacted with key moments in history. Sometimes his actions prove to be beneficial to mankind, while at other times his attempt to do the right thing ends up being a big mistake down the road. A reporter sees photographic evidence of the same man next to key U.S. figures of the past, and although the pictures span several decades, the…

Feed the Machine Nickelback Since they formed in 1996, the Canadian rock band have released nine albums, and their latest does not disappoint. Delivering the same classic Nickelback sound, this album showcases Chad Kroeger’s talents, marking his comeback after vocal cord surgery in 2015. FIVE FACTS: 1. The band has been influenced by the likes of the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, U2, and Metallica. 2. They independently recorded their first album. 3. Their first hit single, Leader of Men, was in the top ten of the American rock charts for 13 weeks. 4. Coldplay singer Chris Martin is a big fan of the band. 5. Chad Kroeger, the band’s lead vocalist and guitarist, had a dream that he would die on stage from a heart attack on his 40th birthday…

The United States has denied visas to five teenage students from Gambia competing in a prestigious international robotics contest in Washington, the team’s leader said Tuesday. The teens found the rejection “very disheartening,” said Mucktarr M.Y. Darboe, who is also a director in the largely Muslim West African nation’s ministry of higher education. Darboe said the students were not given a reason for the visa denials in April, and he called the decision “disappointing and unfair.” The Gambia team is not alone. An all-female team from Afghanistan also was denied visas. The U.S. Embassy in Banjul could not immediately be reached for comment. Tiny Gambia has been through dramatic change in recent months, ousting via elections a longtime dictator, Yahya Jammeh, whose administration was accused of human rights abuses. The…

No more gasoline or diesel cars sold in France by 2040 - that’s the ambitious goal set Thursday by France’s environment minister as part of far-reaching efforts to wean the world’s No. 6 economy from fossil fuels. Some manufacturers and drivers met his proposals with skepticism, but others viewed them as a welcome riposte to U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to pull out of the Paris climate accord. Minister Nicolas Hulot, unveiling a five-year government plan to encourage clean energy and fulfill France’s commitments under the Paris accord, said French car manufacturers have projects that “can fulfill that promise.” His appeal comes a day after Sweden’s Volvo became the first major automaker to pledge to stop making cars and SUVs powered solely by the internal combustion engine. The Paris mayor…

Ride-hailing service Uber is taking a yearlong break in Finland because legislation that’s expected to open the transportation market for new businesses does not come into force until July 2018. Uber, which has met stiff resistance from unions in Finland, says the pause concerns only UberPOP while the licensed UberBLACK service will continue to operate as usual. Uber Finland’s general manager, Joel Jarvinen, said Thursday the company, along with “several hundred” drivers in the Finnish capital, is looking forward to the reforms but will wait until “the new regulations allow a better environment.” Uber operates in 450 cities worldwide. It started operating in Finland in 2015, where it has six employees who will remain with the company during the break. Transportation services, including taxis, are generally tightly controlled in Finland.…

Sexism in Silicon Valley has been an open secret for years. What’s changing: A growing number of women are coming forward with personal stories of sexual harassment and discrimination, prompting apologies, resignations and plenty of hand-wringing. It’s too soon to tell whether the incidents will lead to meaningful, long-term change. But the revelations, many implicating industry bigshots, are at least leading to some humbled self-reflection in an industry long criticized as arrogant and self-centered. In the latest example, prominent venture investor Dave McClure apologized over the weekend for making “inappropriate advances” toward several women. His apology - titled “I’m a Creep. I’m Sorry” - follows a New York Times report that described offensive behavior by McClure and other prominent venture investors, as related by female entrepreneurs. On Monday, he resigned…

On the surface, the investigation was routine. Federal agents persuaded a judge to issue a warrant for a Microsoft email account they suspected was used for drug trafficking. But U.S.-based Microsoft kept the emails on a server in Ireland. Microsoft said that meant the emails were beyond the warrant’s reach. A federal appeals court agreed. Late last month, the Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to intervene. The case is among several legal clashes that Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft and other technology companies have had with the government over questions of digital privacy and authorities’ need for information to combat crime and extremism. Privacy law experts say the companies have been more willing to push back against the government since the leak of classified information detailing America’s surveillance programs. Another issue…

First lady Melania Trump introduced her husband to an enthusiastic crowd in Warsaw on Thursday, her most prominent moment in a short trip to the Polish capital that also included a visit to a science center. The first lady said that guaranteeing the “security” of the American people was the centerpiece of President Donald Trump’s administration and that she hoped all people around the world should also be allowed to “live their lives without fear.” She also touted a tour she took earlier in the day at a science center nearby in Warsaw where people came “to observe, experiment, to ask questions and seek answers,” which she said should inspire people in both the United States and Poland. Melania Trump, who is taking a prominent role in her husband’s overseas…

Samsung Electronics said this week it will invest 21.4 trillion won ($19 billion) in the next four years in its memory chip and display plants in South Korea. The South Korean company’s announcement comes as the global memory chip industry enjoys a massive boom thanks to a surge in demand for microchips. Global tech companies have been increasing servers and data centers to handle more data from mobile devices and auto vehicles and also on expectations that adoption of artificial intelligence would create even more demand for handling data. Samsung said by 2021, it will spend an additional 14.4 trillion won ($12.5 billion) to increase the capacity in its memory chip factory in Pyeongtaek, south of Seoul, which began operating in the day. Samsung said the 15.6 trillion won ($13.6…

Kesha has released her first new music in four years and announced a forthcoming album, her first since a high-profile legal battle with Dr. Luke over a lawsuit accusing the music producer of sexual assault and harassment. Kesha has debuted “Praying,” the lead single from “Rainbow,” her first album since 2012’s “Warrior.” Co-written by Ryan Lewis, “http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-Dur3uXXCQPraying” features lyrics about overcoming adversity. In an essay for Lenny Letter, Kesha writes that the song is about “coming to feel empathy for someone else even if they hurt you or scare you.” Dr. Luke, whose real name is Lukasz Gottwald, has denied Kesha’s allegations. “Rainbow” is due out Aug. 11 and features appearances by Dolly Parton, Eagles of Death Metal and the Dap-Kings.…

“Despicable Me 3” topped the box office over the pre-Fourth of July holiday weekend with $72.4 million in grosses, but there were more fireworks lower down the charts. In second place Edgar Wright’s heist film “Baby Driver,” which cost a reported $34 million to make, has taken in $39 million since opening June 28, with $20.6 million of that coming from the weekend. The buzzy rom-com “The Big Sick” also made waves in its second weekend expansion, earning $1.7 million from 71 locations - a $23,267 per-location average - to take 12th place. Holdovers rounded out the holiday top five, including “Transformers: The Last Knight” in third place with $16.9 million, “Wonder Woman” in fourth place with $15.7 million, and “Cars 3” in fifth place with $9.7 million. Taking sixth…

Vice President Mike Pence is getting an insider’s look at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. Pence will address employees Thursday at the Vehicle Assembly Building, once used to stack moon rockets and space shuttles. His tour will also include a look at the future, with NASA’s new Orion spacecraft, and Boeing and SpaceX’s commercial crew effort. Pence is leading a revived National Space Council. President Donald Trump re-established the advisory group on Friday. Last month, Pence visited Johnson Space Center in Houston to help introduce America’s newest astronauts. Florida’s Kennedy is the second stop on his NASA tour. It is NASA’s launch hub, but hasn’t seen any astronaut takeoffs since the shuttles retired in 2011. Boeing and SpaceX are working to change that with their own capsules. Online: NASA…

North Korea’s newly demonstrated missile muscle puts Alaska within range of potential attack and stresses the Pentagon’s missile defenses like never before. Even more worrisome, it may be only a matter of time before North Korea mates an even longer-range ICBM with a nuclear warhead, putting all of the United States at risk. The Pentagon has spent tens of billions to develop what it calls a limited defense against missiles capable of reaching U.S. soil. The system has never faced combat or been fully tested. The system succeeded May 30 in its first attempted intercept of a mock ICBM, but it hasn’t faced more realistic conditions. Although Russia and China have long been capable of targeting the U.S. with a nuclear weapon, North Korea is seen as the bigger, more…

When departure information disappeared from Kiev airport’s website after last week’s cyberattack, employees trained a camera on the departure board and broadcast it to YouTube. When government servers were switched off, officials posted updates to Facebook. And with the disruption continuing, office workers have turned to Gmail to keep their businesses going. As Ukraine’s digital infrastructure shuddered under the weight of last Tuesday’s cyberattack, Silicon Valley firms played an outsize role in keeping information flowing, an illustration both of their vast reach and their unofficial role as a kind of emergency backup system. Google’s mail service has been keeping the lights on at some firms after their email servers down, while Facebook is credited as a critical platform for digital first responders. “Our war room, nationwide, migrated to Facebook,” said…

HMD Global, the company that’s licensed to produce Nokia phones and tablets, says it is partnering with Germany-based Zeiss to produce high quality optics on its new Nokia smartphones. The Finnish company says the handsets will be equipped with Zeiss cameras, “building on the shared history and expertise between Zeiss and Nokia smartphones.” Before selling its cellphone business to Microsoft in 2013, top-end Nokia smartphones used Zeiss optics. HMD Global CEO Arto Nummela said Thursday that Nokia fans “want a complete imaging experience ... and, together with Zeiss, we’re delivering it - co-developed imaging excellence for all.” In January, HMD announced the launch of Nokia 6 in China before selling globally, and has since announced the launch of two other smartphone models, the Nokia 3 and 5.…

Whether by whim or design, President Donald Trump keeps adding fuel to his incendiary Twitter battle against the media. The press is an easy target for the Republican president, and one his supporters love to hate. But the escalating conflict has diverted attention not just from Trump’s failures but his claimed successes as well. Trump tweeted Monday that “at some point the Fake News will be forced to discuss our great jobs numbers, strong economy, success with ISIS, the border & so much else!” It’s his own campaign against the press, though, that keeps changing the subject from that more substantive policy debate Trump claims to crave. And it has hindered Trump’s ability to push his agenda through Congress, where Republicans complain about the president’s lack of focus as his…

Apple’s WWDC launch keynote this year was undoubtedly its most exciting in years, being packed to the rafters with announcements about both software updates and new hardware. We learned about not only the expected updates to iOS, macOS, and watchOS, but also the Siri-powered HomePod smart speaker and stunningly powerful new iPads. However, you might have overlooked the large extent to which all of these will be driven by the AI advancement known as deep learning. HOW MACHINE LEARNING AND DEEP LEARNING WORK Deep learning is a strand of machine learning, a term that was often bandied about during Apple’s two-and-a-half-hour presentation. Machine learning indicates a pivotal change in approaching artificial intelligence; it posits that, rather than pour data into machines in the effort to teach them everything, we should…

A fatal, off-screen car crash interrupts the picturesque, suburban lives of a young married couple in David Lowery’s “A Ghost Story,” marooning the deceased husband musician (Casey Affleck) in a kind of purgatory as a watchful, mostly benign ghost. The movie is, inevitably, “the one where Casey Affleck spends most of the movie with a bedsheet over his head.”With two holes for eyes, he resembles a last-minute Halloween costume. Such a simple, sheeted specter - as Hollywood ghosts go - is tantamount to a radical deviation from prevailing orthodoxy. There’s no CGI. Nobody gets slimed. A shirtless Patrick Swayze doesn’t make a single pot. No, the most audacious display of cinematic extreme in “A Ghost Story” is a scene where the ghost watches his widowed wife (Rooney Mara), in a…

CHiPs Dax Shepard and Michael Peña star in this action-packed comedy, directed by Shepard himself. The film begins as Jon and Frank join the California Highway Patrol in LA, one a rookie and the other a pro. The pair clash horribly, and things go from bad to worse as the pair deal with corruption and murder. The Belko Experiment “In two minutes we want thirty of you dead. If thirty of you are not dead, we will end sixty of your lives ourselves.” A sickening social experiment commences as 80 American’s are locked inside their high-rise office building. They must fight to survive. FIVE FACTS: 1. The Spanish version of I Will Survive by Gloria Gaynor plays over the credits. 2. Director James Gunn had vowed to work with John…

A weird thing happened when the four members of the alt-rock band Imagine Dragons sat down to listen to their new album all the way through. They actually liked it. “This was the first record that I think after we created it and we listened to it, we all went, for the first time, ‘Yes. This is Imagine Dragons and we’re proud of this,’” said lead singer Dan Reynolds. “That doesn’t happen very often in this band, to be honest with you.” The Las Vegas-based quartet, which likes to blend rock and hip-hop, has always been its toughest critic, but on “Evolve,” band members had to learn to let go. They relied on producers for the first time - Swedish duo Mattman & Robin, who won a Grammy for Taylor…

Samsung Electronics plans to recycle and sell its recalled Galaxy Note 7 phones starting this week in South Korea, salvaging their unused parts. The Galaxy Note FE phone will go on sale in South Korea on Friday at 700,000 won ($611), about three quarters of its original price, the company said late Sunday. Samsung said the Note FE has “perfect safety” - unlike the recalled versions that were found to be prone to overheating and catching fire. The supply will be limited to 400,000 units. Overseas sales plans will be determined later, the company said in a statement. The original Note 7 was one of the biggest black eyes in Samsung’s history. When it was launched in August 2016, the Note 7 was Samsung’s answer to Apple’s upcoming iPhone. It…

The small Ukrainian tax software company that is accused of being the patient zero of a damaging global cyberepidemic is under investigation and will face charges, the head of Ukraine’s CyberPolice suggested Monday. Col. Serhiy Demydiuk, the head of Ukraine’s national Cyberpolice unit, said in an interview with The Associated Press that Kiev-based M.E. Doc’s employees had blown off repeated warnings about the security of their information technology infrastructure. “They knew about it,”he told the AP at his office. “They were told many times by various anti-virus firms. ... For this neglect, the people in this case will face criminal responsibility.” Demydiuk and other officials say last week’s unusually disruptive cyberattack was mainly spread through a malicious update to M.E. Doc’s eponymous tax software program, which is widely used by…

Robots will start roaming South Korea’s largest airport this summer, helping travelers find their boarding gates and keep its floors clean as the country prepares for its first Winter Olympics game. Starting this month, Troika, a self-driving robot made by LG Electronics, will rove the Incheon International Airport, telling travelers how long it takes to get to boarding gates and escorting them to their flights. A jumbo cleaning robot will help cleaning staff swab the wide expanses of floors in the airport west of Seoul. Troika, about the size of a young teen, is equipped with a rectangular display on its front that looks like a giant smartphone screen and can show flight information, an airport map and weather data. Its partly rounded head has a flat touchscreen face that…