TechLife News

A top U.N. scientist on Thursday shrugged off an online quip from U.S. President Donald Trump that questioned global warming, saying a U.S. government report will show the “fundamental impacts of climate change on the U.S. continent.” Officials at th

In these heated and oft-difficult times, do we need dogs more than ever? Do we need to rescue them, let them run free, accept their precious help with our most trying physical challenges and revel in their licks and loving nudges? Filmmakers Glen Zip

Corporations’ appetite for buying back their own stock has hit a record high. Stock buybacks by companies in the benchmark S&P 500 index climbed to $194.07 billion in the third quarter, according to data from S&P Dow Jones Indices. The buying spree,

Facebook’s outgoing head of communications is taking the blame for hiring Definers, the public relations firm doing opposition research on the company’s critics, including billionaire philanthropist George Soros. In a Facebook post that went up late

Google said Thursday it’s expanding stricter political advertising requirements to the European Union as part of efforts to curb misinformation and increase transparency ahead of the bloc’s elections next year. As the EU prepares for the vote, U.S. t

A former grocery store in Middle Georgia is now serving high-tech aircraft manufacturing for the military. The inside of the brick building — a former Publix store in Warner Robins — is full of gleaming new futuristic machinery. The Air Force Advance

In the battle for online privacy, Google is a U.S. Goliath facing a handful of European Davids. The backlash over Big Tech’s collection of personal data offers new hope to a number of little-known search engines that promise to protect user privacy.

Hot off the heels of its new iPhone XS and XR launch, Apple invited New York professionals to its ‘More in the Making’ event in late October, unveiling a whole host of new hardware, like the long-awaited MacBook Air refresh and an iPhone X-inspired i

“Ralph Breaks the Internet” may star an arcade bad guy with powerful hammer-like fists, but the animated sequel is also packing a punch with strong female characters. Sarah Silverman, who returns as the voice of Vanellope von Schweetz, credits Disney

For the past decade, Sheryl Sandberg has been the poised, reliable second-in-command to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, helping steer Facebook’s rapid growth around the world, while also cultivating her brand in ways that hint at aspirations well beyon

In a battle between the internet and John C. Reilly, who among us wouldn’t root for the latter? Leave us IMDb.com and a few podcasts, John, but by all means, go smashy-smashy with the rest. Having liberated arcade game characters from their rigidly o

As temperatures drop and winter looms, homeowners and property managers are sweeping chimneys, insulating pipes and swapping screens for storm windows. They’re also going beyond traditional winterizing by installing smart thermostats and home energy

Goodbye iPhones and Facebook feed. Hello power plants and bleach. Since stocks began tumbling two months ago, investors haven’t abandoned the market. At least, not all of it. In recent weeks, as they’ve pulled money out of funds that invest in go-go

It is Saturday morning, and 10-year-old Henry Hailey is up at the crack of dawn. Still in PJs, his microphone-equipped headphones glowing blue in the dim basement, he fixates on the popular online game “Fortnite” on a large screen. “What?! Right as I

When tech giants like Amazon expand, other companies don’t just worry about losing business. They also fret about hanging on to their employees. Some of the industries that have defined New York City and the Washington, D.C., area will face increased

Mars is about to get its first U.S. visitor in years: a three-legged, one-armed geologist to dig deep and listen for quakes. NASA’s InSight makes its grand entrance through the rose-tinted Martian skies on Monday, after a six-month, 300 million-mile

Near the close of October, Apple threw the veil off the new iPad Pro, which it has hailed as not only the “most advanced, powerful iPad ever” , but also “the iPad we wanted to make from the beginning” . However, short of getting too swept up in the m

A nearly silent, drone-sized aircraft has shown it can fly, thanks to a scientist who was inspired by watching “Star Trek” as a child. With neither propellers nor jets, the airplane gets its thrust by applying a strong electric field to the air. That

If Michael B. Jordan’s path to this moment was condensed and edited, it might look, appropriately, like a training montage. Images of Jordan cutting his teeth on the Baltimore streets of “The Wire” and the Texas football fields of “Friday Night Light

One of the largest outside Democratic groups says ramped-up spending on digital advertising played a key role in midterm battleground races, offering a lesson for potential presidential contenders in 2020. “You’re going to have to have an organizatio

NASA has accepted delivery of a key European part needed to power the world’s next-generation moonship. U.S. and European leaders gathered at Kennedy Space Center on Friday to mark the occasion. The newly arrived powerhouse, or service module, will p

A Chinese university’s plan to conduct a blanket search of student and staff electronic devices has come under fire, illustrating the limits of the population’s tolerance for surveillance and raising the prospect that tactics used on Muslim minoritie

Microsoft, Google and other major technology companies have promised to help provide training in digital skills for around 20 million people in Southeast Asia by 2020 to make sure the region’s burgeoning working-age population is a fit for the future

Atlantic City’s new Call Of Duty is this: To become the East Coast center of competitive video game tournaments, also known as esports. The activity is rapidly growing in popularity across the country and around the world, and the New Jersey gambling

Do you game on an Apple platform? Statistics suggest that you likely do, and perhaps regularly - even if you have to snatch occasional minutes here and there, such as on the morning train, to squeeze in your bouts of gaming. This year, one analyst br

A California-based startup has announced big plans to go small as it reaches into space, rocketing satellites the size of loaves of bread into orbit from Virginia. The endeavor reflects increasing demand from companies and governments alike to monito

Paul G. Allen, who co-founded Microsoft with his childhood friend Bill Gates before becoming a billionaire philanthropist who invested in conservation, space travel and professional sports, died Monday. He was 65. He died in Seattle from complication

Electric auto brand Tesla Inc. said it signed an agreement this week to secure land in Shanghai for its first factory outside the United States, pushing ahead with development despite mounting U.S.-Chinese trade tensions. Tesla, based on Palo Alto, C

The NASA astronaut who survived last week’s failed launch and emergency landing knew he needed to stay calm. Air Force Col. Nick Hague described the closest call of his career: His space capsule violently ripped from his damaged rocket shortly after

There’s not much about the physical details of Google’s new Pixel 3 phone that you can’t find elsewhere. That bigger display and curved design? Apple and Samsung phones already have that. But the Pixel doesn’t intend to wow people with its hardware a

After failing to reach a breakthrough on Britain’s divorce terms from the European Union, weary EU leaders rolled straight into another summit Thursday, this one aimed at forging closer links with Asia. The Asia-Europe meeting brings together 30 Euro

With hollow eyes and sagging cheeks, the flabby white mask of Michael Myers is horror’s great blank slate. Project your fears here, it says. Myers doesn’t speak. His movements never rise beyond a deliberate gait (well, aside from all the stabbing and

Google plans to start charging smartphone makers to pre-install apps like Gmail, YouTube and Google Maps on Android handsets sold in Europe, a response to a record $5 billion antitrust fine imposed by the European Union. The U.S. tech company’s annou

Data has never been so important. Every time you search for a business on Google, message a friend on Instagram or add an item to your basket on Amazon, companies around the world trade your data, building up a profile of who you are as a consumer to

Netflix regained its stride with surprisingly strong subscriber growth in the third quarter, after an unexpected springtime stumble triggered fears that it was losing its allure. The video-streaming service added 7 million subscribers worldwide from

If Instagram is the dream vacation you’ll never go on and Facebook is Thanksgiving with too many relatives arguing over politics, Pinterest is sitting on the couch by yourself, watching a home-improvement show and absent-mindedly flipping through an

It’s now possible to check in automatically at Shanghai’s Hongqiao airport using facial recognition technology, part of an ambitious rollout of facial recognition systems in China that has raised privacy concerns as Beijing pushes to become a global

Like a lot of parents, Mike Herrick occasionally sees his 13-year-old daughter getting lost in her smartphone and wonders: Is technology messing with children’s brains, even as it enlightens and empowers them in ways that weren’t possible when his ge

A characteristic twinkle in his eye, Ronald Reagan waves to a crowd from aboard a rail car in a hologram revealed Wednesday at the late president’s namesake library in Southern California. “We think we made a good beginning, but you ain’t seen nothin

Data is pored over by coaches and staff of the Orlando Magic on a regular basis. They’ll dissect how far a player runs during practice, how quickly that player accelerates and decelerates, how his performance changes as the workout goes along, biomet

Automated alerts from the fledgling West Coast earthquake early warning system are ready to be used broadly by businesses, utilities, schools and other entities but not for mass public notification, officials said Wednesday. “We’re making a large cha

Could hackers have been able to see the last person you cyberstalked, or that party photo you were tagged in? According to Facebook, the unfortunate answer is “yes.” The social network said fewer users were affected in a security breach it disclosed

Michael Buble is shutting down rumors that he’s going to retire from music, saying he was misquoted in a recent interview. Buble told The Associated Press on Tuesday that he is not planning on retiring anytime soon. He disputes an Oct. 13 interview p

Nearly a half-century has passed since the majestic moment when Neil Armstrong stepped carefully onto the lunar landscape, left foot first, taking that giant leap for mankind. Whether you were alive then and glued to the TV, or relived it later throu

The internet is riddled with long-forgotten accounts on social media, dating apps and various shopping sites used once or twice. Sure, you should delete all those unused logins and passwords. And eat your vegetables. And go to the gym. But is it even

San Francisco has come to be known around the world as a place for aggressive panhandling, open-air drug use and sprawling tent camps, the dirt and despair all the more remarkable for the city’s immense wealth. Some streets are so filthy that officia

As Walmart, AT&T and Disney join stalwarts such as Netflix in streaming video and creating original shows, a reality sets in: Not all will survive. Over the past week, Walmart announced plans to partner with MGM Studios on original shows for Walmart’

An Indianapolis high school that opened last year is attracting students with autism by taking a different approach to teaching. Purdue Polytechnic High School offers flexible schedules, project-based learning and a curriculum focused on science, tec

A former Equifax manager was sentenced this week to serve eight months home confinement for engaging in insider trading in the wake of the company’s massive data breach last year. Sudhakar Reddy Bonthu, who worked as a software product development ma

Two astronauts from the U.S. and Russia were safe Thursday after an emergency landing in the steppes of Kazakhstan following the failure of a Russian booster rocket carrying them to the International Space Station. NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Rosco

Google will begin offering its pay-to-carpool service throughout the U.S., an effort to reduce the commute-time congestion that its popular Waze navigation app is designed to avoid. The expansion announced Wednesday builds upon a carpooling system th

Visitors to New Zealand can be fined 5,000 New Zealand dollars ($3,243) for refusing to provide passwords to unlock electronic devices and allow customs officials to examine them under a new law that a civil liberties group on Thursday condemned as a

The Hubble Space Telescope has been sidelined by a serious pointing problem. NASA announced that one of Hubble’s gyroscopes failed last Friday. While that was expected — that particular gyro was expected to go sometime this year — the surprise came w

Switzerland’s high court has upheld the acquittal of a former bank accountant who handed over confidential client information to WikiLeaks, ruling Wednesday he wasn’t bound by the country’s strict banking secrecy laws at the time. The Federal Tribuna

Google is shutting down its long-shunned Plus social network for consumers, following its disclosure of a flaw discovered in March that could have exposed some personal information of up to 500,000 people. The announcement came in a blog post, which

The European Parliament wants to cut CO2 emissions from new cars and vans by 40 percent by 2030 and will try to convince the European Union’s 28 nations to back the idea despite objections from the powerful car industry. The proposed cut agreed on by

Google is appealing a record $5 billion antitrust fine by European Union authorities, who say the tech giant abused the dominance of its Android operating system to stifle competitors. A company spokesman, Al Verney, confirmed that the company has fi

The U.N. office for disaster risk reduction said that worldwide reported economic losses from earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, floods, hurricanes and other climate-related disasters surged to total nearly $2.9 trillion over the past 20 years. UNISDR,

European carmakers are rolling out electric vehicles like the ones on view this week at the Paris Motor Show to burnish their reputations as technology leaders and to compete with Tesla. But also because EU regulations don’t leave them much choice. N

The holiday season starts officially at the end of Thanksgiving, but for fans of Apple and tech products in general, September and October can often feel like Christmas, Hanukah, Kwanzaa and New Years’ Eve all rolled into one – and there are certainl

Teens and young adults say cyberbullying is a serious problem for people their age, but most don’t think they’ll be the ones targeted for digital abuse. That’s according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research

It won’t be an easy job. Whoever becomes the new chairman of Tesla Motors will face the formidable task of reining in Elon Musk, the charismatic, visionary chief executive with an impulsive streak, while also helping Musk achieve his dream of turning

Google’s new Pixel phones mirror an industry trend toward lusher, bigger screens and add twists on the camera for better pictures. The third generation of Pixel phones unveiled Tuesday at an event in New York features screens that span from one edge

Drew Goddard, the screenwriter-turned-director whose feature debut was the meta-horror film “A Cabin in the Woods,” has laid another movie trap. This time, in the pulpy but artificial thriller “Bad Times at the El Royale,” it’s a motel. And as anyone

Electronic devices across the United States sounded off Wednesday as the Federal Emergency Management Agency conducted its first-ever national wireless emergency alert test. The tone went off at 2:18 p.m. EDT. The subject of the alert read: “Presiden

Over the past several years, Apple engineers have been hard at work perfecting the iPhone. In many ways, the company has already achieved its mission, with the 2018 launch of the iPhone XS bringing the most advanced hardware of all time to consumer t

Facebook is launching the first electronic device to bear its brand, a screen and camera-equipped gadget intended to make video calls easier and more intuitive. But it’s unclear if people will open their homes to an internet-connected camera sold by

Netflix has chosen New Mexico as the site of a new U.S. production hub and is in final negotiations to buy an existing multimillion-dollar studio complex on the edge of the state’s largest city, government and corporate leaders announced this week. I

“Venom,” starring Tom Hardy as a TV investigative journalist whose body is invaded by an alien organism, is a destabilizing mix of intentional and unintentional comedy that for better and worse returns the superhero movie to its natural state: camp.

New technologies from artificial intelligence to gene editing hold immense potential to improve people’s live — but can also drive greater inequality and social dislocation, according to a U.N. report launched this week. The World Economic and Social

For users, Facebook’s revelation of a data breach that gave attackers access to 50 million accounts raises an important question: What happens next? For the owners of the affected accounts, and of another 40 million that Facebook considered at risk,

The Treasury Department issued new rules on foreign investments into American companies that will give the government more power to block foreign transactions on national security grounds. The rules, which represent the latest escalation in an intens

Japan’s No. 1 automaker Toyota Motor and technology giant SoftBank Group are setting up a joint venture to create mobility services in what they called a “united Japan” effort to face global competition. The 2 billion yen ($20 million) venture, Monet

There’s no denying Steve Jobs’ impact on Apple and the way in which his visions have shaped the company. Apple now has a trillion-dollar valuation and has been awarded the most valuable in the world. Steve’s way of thinking is, indeed, now ingrained

Scientists from the United States, Canada and France won the Nobel Prize in physics Tuesday for revolutionizing the use of lasers in research, finding ways to make them deliver more powerful flashes of light and even to act like tiny tweezers. Their

Today’s college students connect with and consume technology in a much different way than students of the past. “The students who come to us today haven’t existed in an age where there wasn’t an internet, where there wasn’t an iPod,” said Travis Feez

In the Za’atari refugee camp in Jordan, Amar Al-Eid heads toward the checkout of the food distribution store carrying supplies for his two children. The shopkeeper raises a black box to his face and scans the Syrian refugee’s iris. The transaction go

It can be subtle, like failing to make eye contact with a woman business owner but engaging in animated conversation with her male co-owner. Or more blatant, like asking an owner who’s seeking investor money if she plans to have children. Many women

When SpaceX launched a rocket carrying an Argentine Earth-observation satellite from California, both the night sky and social media lit up. People as far away as Phoenix and Sacramento posted photos of the Falcon 9 rocket’s launch and return on Sund

Apple has dominated several product categories such as the smartphone, the smartwatch and the portable music player when it has been the founding member of the market or has joined at a preliminary stage. However, results have been more mixed when it

High above Yemen’s rebel-held city of Hodeida, a drone controlled by Emirati forces hovered as an SUV carrying a top Shiite Houthi rebel official turned onto a small street and stopped, waiting for another vehicle in its convoy to catch up. Seconds l

California Gov. Jerry Brown has approved the nation’s strongest net neutrality law, prompting an immediate lawsuit by the Trump administration and opening the next phase in the battle over regulating the internet. Advocates of net neutrality hope Cal

Children’s and public health advocacy groups say Facebook’s kid-centric messaging app violates federal law by collecting kids’ personal information without getting verifiable consent from their parents. The Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood an

A race by U.S. tech companies to build a new generation of powerful “quantum computers” could get a $1.3 billion boost from Congress, fueled in part by lawmakers’ fear of growing competition from China. Legislation passed earlier in September by the

Cellular companies such as Verizon are looking to challenge traditional cable companies with residential internet service that promises to be ultra-fast, affordable and wireless. Using an emerging wireless technology known as 5G, Verizon’s 5G Home se

A day after Vancouver forward Bo Horvat said the Canucks have instituted a Fortnite ban for the upcoming season, there was talk in NHL arenas about whether it is fair to blame the popular online game for performance on the ice. Winnipeg star Patrik L

Facebook has named Adam Mosseri, a 10-year veteran at the company, as the head of Instagram. The appointment comes after the photo-sharing app’s co-founders resigned last week without giving a clear reason. Kevin Systrom, Instagram’s CEO, and Mike Kr

When Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger sold Instagram to Facebook in 2012, the photo-sharing startup’s fiercely loyal fans worried about what would happen to their beloved app under the social media giant’s wings. None of their worst fears materialized.

For centuries, people have relied on maps to figure out where they are and where they’re going. But today’s digital maps — seemingly more precise than ever —aren’t always as dependable as they appear. At the end of August, for instance, Snapchat user

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is off to a slow start in his mission to bring virtual reality to the masses, so perhaps it’s appropriate his company’s next VR headset will be called Quest. The headset from Facebook’s Oculus division will be a stand-alo

Apple’s September Events are a time for the company to show off their latest innovations and get people excited about the next year of products and software. Historically, it’s the iPhone that attracts the most attention. This year’s Gather Round eve

A meeting between top state law enforcement officials and Attorney General Jeff Sessions about how the government can safeguard the privacy of social media users ended Tuesday without a decision on whether to investigate. The gathering at the Justice