CATEGORIES

AI PANEL URGES US TO BOOST TECH SKILLS AMID CHINA'S RISE

An artificial intelligence commission led by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt is urging the U.S. to boost its AI skills to counter China, including by pursuing “AI-enabled” weapons – something that Google itself has shied away from on ethical grounds.

BIDEN FACES STEEP CHALLENGES TO REACH RENEWABLE ENERGY GOALS

President Joe Biden wants to change the way the U.S. uses energy by expanding renewables, but he will need to navigate a host of challenges — including the coronavirus pandemic and restoring hundreds of thousands of lost jobs — to get it done.

WILL PARAMOUNT+ BE A MOUNTAIN OR A MOLEHILL IN STREAMING?

Paramount+ debuts Thursday as the latest — and last — streaming option from a major media company, this time from ViacomCBS. It’s betting that consumers are willing to add yet another paid streaming service in an increasingly crowded field.

COUNTRIES URGE DRUG COMPANIES TO SHARE VACCINE KNOW-HOW

In an industrial neighborhood on the outskirts of Bangladesh’s largest city lies a factory with gleaming new equipment imported from Germany, its immaculate hallways lined with hermetically sealed rooms. It is operating at just a quarter of its capacity.

GOOGLE ENDS SALE OF ADS USING INDIVIDUAL WEB TRACKING DATA

Google says it won’t develop new ways to follow individual users across the internet after it phases out existing ad-tracking technology from its Chrome browser, a change that could shake up the online advertising industry.

US JOBLESS CLAIMS TICK UP TO 745,000 AS LAYOFFS REMAIN HIGH

The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits edged higher last week to 745,000, a sign that many employers continue to cut jobs despite a drop in confirmed viral infections and evidence that the overall economy is improving.

IN ‘THE FATHER,' THE DISORIENTATION OF DEMENTIA

In Florian Zeller’s “The Father,” Anthony, 80, in the grip of dementia, is a captain ready to go down with the ship. Overhearing his daughter and son-in-law contemplating a nursing home, he curses them as “rats” abandoning him. Pacing his London apartment in a bathrobe, he mounts a noble resistance.

STEPHEN KING AND J.J. ABRAMS WORK ON LISEY'S STORY FOR APPLE TV+

When you combine the creative genius of probably the best horror writer of the modern area and one of the best and most respected producers of our era, you are probably going to get a product that is going to be a masterpiece in its own right.

MICROSOFT: CHINA-BASED HACKERS FOUND BUG TO TARGET US FIRMS

China-based government hackers have exploited a bug in Microsoft’s email server software to target U.S. organizations, the company said this week.

BILLIE EILISH, UNFILTERED, IN NEW DOCUMENTARY

If you’re coming to “ Billie Eilish: The World’s a Little Blurry ” hoping for a primer on the music sensation, you’ve come to the wrong place. Filmmaker R.J. Cutler’s two hour and 20-minute documentary about the “Ocean Eyes” singer and songwriter is not biography or reportage. It’s a verite-style plunge into her life, her home, her concerts, her process, her Tourette’s, her brother’s bedroom where they famously write all their songs and even her diary in the year in which she became a star.

AMAZON OPENS FIRST UK CHECKOUT-FREE GROCERY STORE IN LONDON

Amazon has opened a cashier-free supermarket in London, its first bricks and mortar expansion outside the U.S. as the company bets on strong demand for its contactless shops.

USPS SELECTS OSHKOSH DEFENSE TO BUILD GREENER MAIL TRUCK

The United States Post Office said that it has chosen Oshkosh Defense to build its next-generation mail-delivery vehicle, part of an effort to make the USPS more environmentally friendly by switching a portion of its huge fleet to electric vehicles.

The Sound of Silver

THERE ARE quite literally hundreds of small, two-way loudspeakers you can buy priced from under $100 to well north of $10,000 per pair.

Qello Hooray

Qello seeks to corner the market on streaming concerts and music documentaries. Do they have enough diverse material in their coffers to satisfy our consumptive hunger for content?

New Bronze Age

BRITAIN-BASED Monitor Audio offers a wide range of loudspeakers at prices spanning from the bargain basement up to the penthouse that are cleverly named for a variety of metals: Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze.

The Rolling Stones: Goats Head Soup Super Deluxe Edition

Show of hands, please—how many of you rate August 1973’s Goats Head Soup as your favorite Rolling Stones album? Anyone? No? Can’t say I blame you.

Home electronics – Buy Once, Cry Once

PART 2. In my previous column (Buy Once, Cry Once), I considered areas in your A/V budget where you should consider splurging when building a system. The categories I listed—projection screens, amplifiers, speakers—are ones that can provide years of enjoyment, but don’t see regular or major upgrades. I also covered categories like subwoofers that have a real impact on a system’s overall performance, and ones like pre-wiring that can strongly affect a system’s future serviceability.

Fractured Fairy Tales

Okay, children! Time for a bedtime story! Once upon a time, there was a little girl named Goldilocks. While walking through the forest, she came upon a quaint little village. In that village, there were three ways to watch movies.

Crave

The gear we’re lusting after

10 Ways to Boost Your Wi-Fi Signal

Browsing slowed to a crawl, the inability to stream, dropped Wi-Fi signals, wireless dead zones—each of these problems is maddening in a world where getting online has become, for some, as necessary as breathing (well, maybe not that critical—but still important). When the only way you can get decent reception is by standing next to your wireless router, our tips can help.

NEW OR USED? EITHER WAY, PRICE HIKES SQUEEZE US AUTO BUYERS

The viral pandemic has triggered a cascade of price hikes throughout America’s auto industry — a surge that has made both new and used vehicles unaffordable for many.

MARS ROVER'S GIANT PARACHUTE CARRIED SECRET MESSAGE

The huge parachute used by NASA’s Perseverance rover to land on Mars contained a secret message, thanks to a puzzle lover on the spacecraft team.

IN YEAR OF PANDEMIC, HOME DEPOT BECAME SUPPLIER TO MILLIONS

The housing market was among the very few bright spots for the U.S. economy in the year of the lockdown and Home Depot became its supplier, racking up an unprecedented $132 billion in sales for 2020.

GOODELL: NFL LEARNINGS FROM 2020 TECHNOLOGY HERE TO STAY

One of the major benefits of playing a full season pretty much on schedule during a pandemic is what the NFL learned technologically from 2020.

FUNKY ELECTRONICS CHAIN FRY'S IS NO MORE

Fry’s Electronics, the go-to chain for tech tinkerers looking for an obscure part, is closing for good.

FOXCONN LOOKING AT BUILDING ELECTRIC CARS IN WISCONSIN

Foxconn Technology Group said it has signed a deal with a California startup to build electric cars, conceivably at Foxconn’s facility in Wisconsin.

FACEBOOK SAYS IT WILL PAY $1B OVER 3 YEARS TO NEWS INDUSTRY

Facebook, following in Google’s footsteps, says it plans to invest $1 billion to “support the news industry” over the next three years.

GOOGLE FIRES AI MANAGER WHO PROTESTED HER PEER'S DEPARTURE

Google has fired a leader of its artificial intelligence ethics team in the fallout from the recent departure of another former employee involved in the same field.

INVESTING ABCS: TEACHING YOUR KIDS ABOUT MONEY AND MARKETS

The recent stock market mania over the video game company GameStop, which this week was scrutinized by Congress, has provided a teachable moment for kids.

US LAUNCHES AEROSPACE CENTER AT TUSKEGEE UNIVERSITY

The U.S. Department of Defense has launched an aerospace education center of excellence at Tuskegee University in Alabama.