Technology category, Page 34
Aurora partners with Fiat to build self-driving vehicles
Aurora Innovation is partnering with automaker Fiat Chrysler Automobiles to build self-driving vehicles of different makes and models, including commercial vehicles. The company announced the partnership Monday. “As part of FCA’s autonomous vehicle strategy we will continue to work with strategic partners in this space to address the needs of...
Broadway insiders are quietly betting on streaming musicals
NEW YORK — This would seem like a strange moment to worry about Broadway’s future. The oldest entertainment business in the United States is thriving. Thanks to shows such as “Dear Evan Hansen,” “Be More Chill,” “Hamilton” and “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child,” young people are flocking to Broadway’s...
Pilgrim shutdown ends nuclear power era in Massachusetts
PLYMOUTH, Mass. — The Pilgrim nuclear power plant in Plymouth has permanently shut down after 47 years of generating electricity, bring to a close the era of nuclear power in Massachusetts. The final shutdown occurred at 5:28 p.m. Friday. Entergy announced in 2015 it would retire Massachusetts’ only remaining reactor,...
Critics say FCC report overstates broadband availability
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The Federal Communications Commission’s broadband report is being hammered by critics who say it paints too rosy a picture of high-speed internet availability in the U.S. U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia joined two dissenting FCC commissioners in criticizing the report released Wednesday. The FCC’s annual...
Lego, NASA partner on Lunar Lander set for 50th anniversary of moon landing
Space enthusiasts will have a chance to build a Lego replica of the Apollo 11 Lunar Lander to celebrate the anniversary of the first moon landing. Lego has partnered with NASA to release Saturday the NASA Apollo 11 Lunar Lander building set. The cost for the set is $100. July...
Facebook: Fake account removal doubles in 6 months to 3B
SAN FRANCISCO — Facebook removed more than 3 billion fake accounts from October to March, twice as many as the previous six months, the company said Thursday. Nearly all of them were caught before they had a chance to become “active” users of the social network. In a new report,...
Tesla Model 3 Autopilot was active before deadly collision, federal investigators say
Tesla’s Autopilot system was active in a Model 3 that collided with a tractor-trailer during a fatal crash in March, the National Transportation Safety Board said Thursday. The crash in Delray Beach, Fla., that killed the Tesla driver is at least the third deadly collision in the United States involving...
The highest paying entry level jobs, according to Glassdoor
A decade after the Great Recession, when new college grads walked into an abysmal job market with long-lasting effects, the Class of 2019 is joining the workforce during an economic upswing, complete with historically low unemployment and rising wages. For technically minded graduates, the prospects are even brighter, according to...
White House launches survey looking for tech industry bias
SAN FRANCISCO — On the heels of President Trump’s repeated assertions claiming anti-conservative bias by tech companies, the White House has launched an online form asking people to share their experiences if they think political partisanship has led them to be silenced by social media sites. The White House’s official...
High-tech sex toy for women wins back a rescinded award
ARLINGTON, Va. — A trade group has reinstated an award to the makers of a robotic sex toy for women that it had taken away four months ago for not keeping with its image. The Consumer Technology Association on Wednesday restored the Consumer Electronics Show’s 2019 Innovation Award in the...
Parents can’t delete what kids tell Amazon voice assistant
Amazon met with skepticism from some privacy advocates and members of Congress last year when it introduced its first kid-oriented voice assistant , along with brightly colored models of its Echo Dot speaker designed for children. Now those advocates say the kids’ version of Amazon’s Alexa won’t forget what children...
Volkswagen names its new electric car ID.3 and starts preorders
Volkswagen’s upcoming electric car has a name. The ID.3 will not make it’s official debut until September but VW spilled the model name Wednesday. The company says the ID. portion of the name stands for intelligent design “intelligent design, identity and visionary technologies.” VW opens preorders for the ID.3, its...
SpaceX launches supplies to space station after power delays
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — SpaceX launched a load of supplies to the International Space Station on Saturday following a pair of unusual power delays. A Falcon rocket raced into the pre-dawn darkness, carrying a Dragon capsule with 5,500 pounds (2,500 kilograms) of goods. This recycled Dragon — which is making...
What the Apple-Qualcomm-Intel dance means for the future of 5G
The market for a critical component in next-generation smartphones is undergoing a dramatic shift at the dawn of the 5G era. At its center is Qualcomm, the silicon-chip maker whose miniature modems help put the “phone” in iPhone. Now, analysts say, two key developments last week stand to make Qualcomm...
Watch: Pack of Boston Dynamics robot dogs pulls truckVideo
Mush. A pack of robot dogs stood in for real dogs, and a box truck instead of a sled, in a new video released by a U.S. robotics company, showing the robots pulling the truck with apparent ease. The video posted Tuesday shows 10 four-legged, though headless, robot SpotMini pulling...
Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp back up after massive outage
Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp were temporarily down early Sunday. All three social media platforms, including Facebook Messenger, were affected by the outage. Downdetector.com, a site that monitors site outages, shows Facebook had been down since 6:30 a.m. EST in much of the world, with thousands of reported outages concentrated in...
Here’s how to stop Amazon from listening to what you say to Alexa
Don’t want Amazon employees eavesdropping on what you tell Alexa? The AI machine doesn’t magically learn a “Taylor Swift” reference means the musical artist, there is manual processing involved and that means someone at Amazon.com is listening. Officials explained to the Tribune-Review that the device is designed to respond to...
Streaming to subscriptions: Video games enter new frontiers
NEW YORK — The video game industry is entering new frontiers. In the past, you plunked down $60 at GameStop for a copy of Grand Theft Auto or Madden NFL and played it out — after which you could trade it in or let it gather dust. Now, you’ll increasingly...
Women make up 24% of cybersecurity workforce, new study says
The gender problem in cybersecurity just might be getting a little better. Globally, women make up just 11 percent of the workforce; 14 percent in North America, according a 2017 report by the Center for Cyber Safety and Education. Those numbers have been relatively stable since 2013. But a new...
Facebook extends ban on hate speech to ‘white nationalists’
SAN FRANCISCO — Facebook is extending its ban on hate speech to prohibit the promotion and support of white nationalism and white separatism. The company previously allowed such material even though it has long banned white supremacists. The social network said Wednesday that it didn’t apply the ban previously to...
Newspapers largely shun Apple’s news subscription service
NEW YORK — Many newspaper publishers — after suffering for a decade from job losses, shrinking ad dollars and circulation declines — are so far shunning Apple’s new “Netflix for news” subscription. For $10 a month, Apple News Plus offers articles from more than 300 magazines, but only three newspapers....
5 reasons why you’ll want Apple’s radical new credit cardVideo
The company that asked you to “Think Different” about computers and phones now wants to change the way you shop. Apple on Monday announced expansions to services such as TV and gaming but one of the biggest game changers may be its upcoming credit card. You can already buy things...
Apple takes on Netflix, will debut streaming TV service this fall
CUPERTINO, California — Apple says its new subscription TV service will be available this fall. But the company isn’t saying yet how much the service will cost or when exactly it will launch. Apple announced the service, Apple TV Plus, at an event Monday in Cupertino, California, where it also...
Facebook to overhaul ad targeting to prevent discrimination
SAN FRANCISCO — Facebook will overhaul its ad-targeting systems to prevent discrimination in housing , credit and employment ads as part of a legal settlement. For the social network, that’s one major legal problem down, several to go, including government investigations in the U.S. and Europe over its data and...
Loss of old Myspace artifacts highlights impermanence of the Web
The most surprising thing people may learn about Myspace this week is that it still exists. But the old social network’s accidental purge of 12 years’ worth of its users’ music uploads - that’s an estimated 50 million songs - is probably a close second. The tremendous loss of digital...
