Innholdsfortegnelse for #456 i Techlife News

The global pandemic and U.S. protests are forcing a pullback by advertisers on Twitter, but it’s also led to an unprecedented surge of users. Average daily user growth spiked 34% in the second quarter, the company said Thursday, the largest jump in users ever recorded by the company. In an earnings call, CEO Jack Dorsey addressed an embarrassing hacking incident last week that compromised the accounts of high profile users, saying he felt “terrible” about it. Shares of Twitter bounced 6% higher. But the company took a huge tax hit to earnings, posting a net loss of $1.2 billion, or $1.56 per share, in the April-June period, compared with profit of $1.1 billion, or $1.43 per share, a year earlier. Revenue fell by about a fifth to $683 million, far…

The worsening COVID pandemic risks choking off the U.S. economy’s fragile recovery and turn what some investors hoped would be a sprint back to normal into a long hard slog. States like California that had begun to take tentative steps to reopen their stores and restaurants are reversing course, while states across the Sunbelt that balked at taking preventative measures in the Spring are having to quickly backtrack as the number of Americans being hospitalized or dying from the virus hits new records almost daily. “This is not a normal crisis in terms of data we have to monitor,” said Kristina Hooper, chief global market strategist for Invesco. With consumer spending, by far the biggest motor of the U.S. economy, still far below last year’s level, Hooper added, “This is…

Daimler, the maker of Mercedes-Benz luxury cars and Freightliner trucks, lost 1.91 billion euros ($2.21 billion) in the second quarter as the coronavirus outbreak slashed sales of the company’s cars, vans, buses and trucks by about a third. CEO Ola Kallenius said Thursday it had worked to preserve cash reserves during a difficult time and was seeing “the first signs of a sales recovery.” He said there would be more efforts to cut costs because the lost sales would not be made up this year even as the economy returns to “a certain normality.” The profit figure compared to a loss of 1.24 billion euros in the April-June quarter last year when the company had large one-time deductions to earnings. Based in Stuttgart, Daimler AG suspended production in March, April…

Federal safety regulators are moving closer to letting the grounded Boeing 737 Max fly again with changes that Boeing made to the plane after two deadly crashes. The Federal Aviation Administration said that “in the near future” it will issue a proposed safety directive for the plane. The agency gave no indication, however, of when it might lift its March 2019 order that grounded the plane. The FAA said it would allow 45 days for public comment on Boeing’s proposed changes to the plane and pilot-training procedures to address problems found during investigations of the crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia, which together killed 346 people. Investigators have focused on a flight-control system, new to the Max, that pushed the nose of both planes down based on faulty readings from sensors.…

Hackers broke into the Twitter accounts of world leaders, celebrities and tech moguls last week in one of the most high-profile security breaches in recent years, highlighting a major flaw with the service millions of people have come to rely on as an essential communications tool. The intent of the hack appeared to be to steal money from unsuspecting cryptocurrency enthusiasts — in particular, by using the compromised high-follower accounts to scam people out of Bitcoin. But it also raises questions about Twitter’s ability to secure its service against election interference and misinformation ahead of the U.S. presidential election. Here are some questions and answers about the breach: WHAT HAPPENED — AND HOW? On Wednesday (15) afternoon, the Twitter accounts of famous figures began tweeting similar messages saying they were…

Tesla’s losses were mounting last summer, massive debt payments were looming, and both Wall Street and federal regulators had run out of patience with the erratic behavior of CEO Elon Musk. One year ago this week, shares plunged 14% after Tesla posted another quarterly loss, this one for $408 million, wiping out about $6 billion of the company’s worth. Since then the stock has blasted off like at rocket at SpaceX, another Musk-led company. Tesla’s market value today is three times that of Ford, General Motors and Fiat Chrysler, combined. A single share of Tesla now goes for $1,600, a seven-fold increase from a year ago, making it one of the most expensive publicly traded shares in the world. “Things just turned on a dime,” said CFRA Analyst Garrett Nelson.…

REVIEW If you’re of a certain age, much of the new Netflix thriller “Fatal Affair” will be very familiar. That’s because it’s really just a diluted retelling of another, similarly named film — 1987’s “Fatal Attraction.” Weirdly, that doesn’t mean this one — reuniting Omar Epps and Nia Long — isn’t worth microwaving a bucket of popcorn and connecting to Netflix when the kids are asleep. It’s actually a bit of a romp, even if the filmmakers didn’t intend that. This is a thriller that feels safe the second time around. You can even enjoy it with the sound off. Both films share similar DNA — a middle-aged and wealthy but slightly bored spouse has a fling and then that lover goes on a full-on psychopathic rampage until one of…

Schools in the Las Vegas area that had more than 300,000 students when campuses closed in March won’t resume classroom instruction when the new semester starts next month. In response to fears of the spread of the coronavirus — and despite concerns about a shortage of laptops, lack of internet access for some students and the possibility of losing federal funds if school doors don’t open — Clark County School District trustees decided unanimously this week to begin the 2020-2021 school year using what officials call distance education. “It’s better to lose federal dollars than any of you to lose your life,” school board member Linda Young said, comparing the decision to the sinking of the Titanic, KVVU-TV reported . “We don’t have life jackets for everyone ... we’re in…

Workplace chatting service Slack has filed a complaint in the European Union against Microsoft, accusing the software company of anti-competitive behavior. Slack said that Microsoft illegally bundles its Microsoft Teams messaging product, which is similar to Slack, into Office 365, its package of email and other widely used business software. Slack says Microsoft forces companies to install it for millions and blocks its removal. Microsoft Corp. said in a statement that it looks forward to providing the European Commission with more information and answering its questions. San Francisco-based Slack Technologies Inc., which went public in 2019, has been growing rapidly. It reported $201.7 million in sales in its February-April quarter, up 50% from the same time last year. It also reported 122,000 paid customers, up 28% from when the company…

Microsoft said the coronavirus pandemic has increased demand for its flagship products, reporting quarterly earnings Wednesday that beat Wall Street expectations. The software giant said an ongoing trend of working and learning from home has fueled increased demand for its cloud computing services and workplace productivity products, such as email and video conferencing. But the pandemic has also slowed sales of those products to smaller businesses, and eaten into the advertising revenue that powers its LinkedIn career networking service. Microsoft on Wednesday reported fiscal fourth-quarter profit of $11.2 billion, or $1.46 per share, beating Wall Street expectations of $1.34 a share. It posted revenue of $38 billion in the April-June period, up 13% from last year. Analysts had been looking for revenue of $36.5 billion, according to FactSet. The company…

Two major airlines reported huge second-quarter losses Thursday and warned that the recovery in air travel seen in April has stalled as coronavirus cases surge in the U.S. American posted a loss of more than $2 billion, and Southwest lost $915 million. That pushed the combined loss of the nation’s four biggest airlines to more than $10 billion in just three months. Between them, American and Southwest carried 15.4 million passengers from April through June. A year earlier, more than 98 million people jammed on to their planes. With all those lost ticket sales, airlines have turned to cutting costs and hoarding cash in a desperate bid to hang on until the shadow of COVID-19 passes. Southwest CEO Gary Kelly said he was encouraged by a pickup in leisure travel…

China launched its most ambitious Mars mission yet on Thursday in a bold attempt to join the United States in successfully landing a spacecraft on the red planet. Engines blazing orange, a Long March-5 rocket took off under clear skies from Hainan Island, south of China’s mainland, as space enthusiasts gathered on a beach across the bay from the launch site. “This is a kind of hope, a kind of strength,” said Li Dapeng, co-founder of the China branch of the Mars Society, an advocacy group. He watched with his wife, 11-year-old son and 2,000 others on the beach. Launch commander Zhang Xueyu announced to cheers in the control room that the rocket was flying normally about 45 minutes later. “The Mars rover has accurately entered the scheduled orbit,” he…

Though we might still be a few years off the long-rumored Apple Car, this year’s WWDC did not disappoint, lifting the trunk on some exciting new car-related features. Alongside CarPlay enhancements, Apple made its next big leap towards revolutionizing the way we get from A to B, by overhauling Apple Maps user interface and putting our car keys on our phone. GOING THE EXTRA MILE WITH CARKEY Though Apple’s iPhones and Apple Watches have supported NFC technology for a number of years, allowing us to pay for our groceries using our wrist or check-in at the airport, Apple has been slow to introduce additional nearfield communication services. That’s, in part, because of security concerns - put everything from your house keys to your passport onto your phone, and your device…

Facebook has started adding informational labels to all posts about voting by federal elected officials and candidates in the U.S., as it said it would do. But the move appears to be sowing confusion rather than dispelling it. This week, the social network applied labels to posts by President Donald Trump and by Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, among others. The simple labels read “get official voting info” and direct people to a hub with information from authoritative election sources such as state and local officials. The intention, as Facebook laid it out in late June, was to provide links to unbiased information about when and how to vote on election-related posts. Instead, though, they’re being misinterpreted — in some cases as an endorsement of misleading or false…

Florida is moving ahead with plans to dramatically expand its network of electric vehicle charging stations along major interstates and highways. State spending is driving the expansion — even during the pandemic — thanks in part to tens of millions of dollars in criminal and civil penalties from automaker Volkswagen caught cheating on environmental tests. Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis announced $8.5 million for new fast electric charging stations along Interstates 75, 4 and 95 earlier this month. The stations, to be built this summer, will span more than 1,200 miles and increase the number of publicly accessible fast chargers in Florida by more than 50%. The new spending comes on top of a law DeSantis signed last month laying the groundwork for charging stations at every service plaza on Florida’s…

Christopher Nolan’s “Tenet,” which had hoped to herald Hollywood’s return to big theatrical releases, has yet again postponed its release due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Warner Bros. said that “Tenet” will not make its August 12 release date. Unlike previous delays, the studio this time didn’t announce a new target for the release of Nolan’s much-anticipated $200 million thriller. “Tenet” had already shifted from July 17, then July 31 and then Aug. 12. Nolan, a staunch advocate for the big-screen experience, has strenuously hoped that “Tenet” could lead the resumption of nationwide and global moviegoing. But the surge of the virus across much of the U.S. has upended the industry’s aims for even a late-August return. Last week, California ordered its cinemas closed. Warner Bros. Pictures Group chairman Toby…

Hackers working with the Chinese government targeted firms developing vaccines for the coronavirus and stole hundreds of millions of dollars worth of intellectual property and trade secrets from companies across the world, the Justice Department said as it announced criminal charges. The indictment does not accuse the two Chinese defendants of actually obtaining the coronavirus research, but it does underscore the extent to which scientific innovation has been a top target for foreign governments and criminal hackers looking to know what American companies are developing during the pandemic. In this case, the hackers researched vulnerabilities in the computer networks of biotech firms and diagnostic companies that were developing vaccines, testing kits and antiviral drugs. The charges are the latest in a series of aggressive Trump administration actions targeting China. They…

A United Arab Emirates spacecraft rocketed into blue skies from a Japanese launch center Monday at the start of a seven-month journey to Mars on the Arab world’s first interplanetary mission. The liftoff of the Mars orbiter named Amal, or Hope, starts a rush to fly to Earth’s neighbor that is scheduled to be followed in the next few days by China and the United States. At the space center in Dubai, people watching were transfixed by the liftoff, then cheered and clapped, with one woman with offering a celebratory cry common for weddings. Amal blasted off from the Tanegashima Space Center aboard a Mitsubishi Heavy Industries’ H-IIA rocket on time at 6:58 a.m. (2158 GMT Sunday) after being delayed five days by bad weather. Mitsubishi later said the probe…

Electric car maker Tesla Inc. has picked the Austin, Texas, area as the site for its largest auto assembly plant employing at least 5,000 workers. The new factory will build Tesla’s upcoming Cybertruck pickup and will be a second U.S. manufacturing site for the Model Y small SUV, largely for distribution to the East Coast. Tesla will build on a 2,100-acre (85-hectacre) site in Travis County near Austin and will get more than $60 million in tax breaks from the county and a local school district over the next decade. Work on the plant, which will be over 4 million square feet, is already underway, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said. He did not put a number on how many vehicles the facility would produce. “Long term, a lot,” Musk said.…

Why are coins hard to find during the pandemic? The Federal Reserve has seen a significant decline of coins in circulation because people are not spending them as regularly at businesses, many of which are either temporarily closed or not accepting cash. Coins are still plentiful. In April, the U.S. Treasury estimated more than $47.8 billion were in the market, up by more than a billion dollars compared to last year. But in recent months, people have not been spending those coins at places like laundromats, banks, restaurants, or shops because the businesses are closed, or people are not visiting them as often as they were before the pandemic. “The typical places where coin enters our society have slowed or even stopped the normal circulation of coin,” said the Federal…

The “queen of the skies” will no longer don the red, white and blue of the Union Jack after British Airways retired its fleet of Boeing 747s as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. The airline, which was the world’s biggest operator of the 747-400 model, had already planned to ground its fleet of 31 of the iconic wide-bodied jets in 2024. But the pandemic, which has seen most of the world’s planes grounded for the best part of three months, has hastened its journey into retirement, especially as forecasters predict that passenger numbers will remain lower than normal, potentially for years to come. BA’s predecessor, BOAC, first used the 747 in 1971 and as with many airlines, the plane — affectionately referred to as either the “jumbo jet” or…

Apple today unveiled its plan to become carbon neutral across its entire business, manufacturing supply chain, and product life cycle by 2030. The company is already carbon neutral today for its global corporate operations, and this new commitment means that by 2030, every Apple device sold will have net zero climate impact. “Businesses have a profound opportunity to help build a more sustainable future, one born of our common concern for the planet we share,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “The innovations powering our environmental journey are not only good for the planet — they’ve helped us make our products more energy efficient and bring new sources of clean energy online around the world. Climate action can be the foundation for a new era of innovative potential, job creation, and…

The Walt Disney Co. has “dramatically” slashed its advertising budget on Facebook and Facebookowned Instagram, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. It’s the latest setback for the social network, which is facing a growing advertising boycott over its policies and actions on hate speech on its platforms. The Journal, citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter, said the time frame for Disney’s pullback was not clear. Disney was Facebook’s biggest U.S. advertiser for the first six months of 2020, according to research firm Pathmatics Inc. Disney joins hundreds of other companies that have paused spending on the service. The report did not say whether Disney is officially joining the ad boycott. Some companies, such as Starbucks, are pulling back social media advertising due to hate speech and…

A coalition of states is following California’s lead in setting goals to jump-start a transition to electric-powered trucks, vans and buses in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve air quality for communities choked by diesel fumes. The 15 states, plus Washington, D.C., announced last week that they’ve agreed to develop an action plan aimed at having 100% of all new medium- and heavy-duty vehicles sold be zero-emission by 2050, with an interim target of 30% zero-emission vehicle sales by 2030. “This is a really big deal in sending a powerful signal to industry with directions on where we need to be going with transportation,” said Bill Van Amburg, executive vice president of CALSTART, a nonprofit consortium focused on building a clean transportation industry. “You can now justify further…

The launch of NASA’s successor to the Hubble Space Telescope faces seven more months of delay, this time because of the pandemic and technical issues. Officials announced that the James Webb Space Telescope — the space agency’s top science priority — is now scheduled to launch on Oct. 31, 2021. The previous target date was March 2021. This next-generation observatory — designed to peer farther into space and further back into time than any other spacecraft — originally was supposed to fly more than a decade ago. The previous two-year-plus delay, announced in 2018, was due to worker error and hardware problems. Until COVID-19 struck, everything was finally going well, officials said. “Mission success is critical, but team safety is our highest priority,”said NASA Associate Administrator Steve Jurczyk. NASA stressed…

As an official scorer for Major League Baseball, Ron Jernick has worked at the World Series, the All-Star Game and the World Baseball Classic. This season he’ll work at home. Baseball is back, but because of the coronavirus, official scorers this season will rule remotely on hits and errors and other plays. Perhaps none will be more remote than Jernick, a fixture in the Miami Marlins press box since 1999. He lives three hours north in the Melbourne area. MLB is limiting the number of people at the ballpark, including in the press box, and decided official scorers could make their calls without seeing the game in person. “There are a lot of roles that have historically been in the ballpark that we had to look at, and the official…

Ant Group, the online payments arm of e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, announced plans for an initial public stock offering that could become the world’s biggest since the coronavirus pandemic began. Ant, valued at $150 billion after a 2018 private fundraising round, gave no indication how much money it hopes to raise in the joint offering in Hong Kong and Shanghai. But the offering would test investor willingness to look beyond the pandemic and worsening global economy. The company will list on the Shanghai Stock Exchange’s (SSE) STAR board and on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. A public offering in Hong Kong would also give foreign investors a chance to own a piece of the biggest player in the huge Chinese online payments industry. That could be doubly attractive at a…