CATEGORIES

CREDIT SUISSE DEAL AVERTED CRISIS, SWISS CENTRAL BANK SAYS

The Swiss central bank hiked its key interest rate Thursday and declared that a government-orchestrated takeover of troubled Credit Suisse by rival bank UBS ended the financial turmoil.

3D-PRINTED ROCKET FAILS JUST AFTER LAUNCH

A rocket made almost entirely of 3D-printed parts made its launch debut Wednesday night, lifting off amid fanfare but failing three minutes into flight — far short of orbit.

WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT NEW RESEARCH ON COFFEE AND HEART RISKS

Coffee lovers — and their doctors — have long wondered whether a jolt of java can affect the heart. New research published Wednesday finds that drinking caffeinated coffee did not significantly affect one kind of heart hiccup that can feel like a skipped beat.

MONEY: IS BEING A LANDLORD WORTH IT?

Real estate has been a popular investment for a very long time — for those who can afford it. But in recent years, trends such as house flipping, “house hacking” (living in one room of a property while renting out the others) and short-term vacation rentals have made real estate investment much more accessible, especially for millennials seeking a second-income stream in an uncertain economy.

GOOGLE SUSPENDS CHINESE SHOPPING APP AMID SECURITY CONCERNS

Google has suspended the Chinese shopping app Pinduoduo on its app store after malware was discovered in versions of the app from other sources.

DIGITAL LITERACY: CAN THE REPUBLIC 'SURVIVE AN ALGORITHM'?

Shawn Lee, a high school social studies teacher in Seattle, wants to see lessons on the internet akin to a kind of 21st-century driver’s education, an essential for modern life.

AMAZON CUTS 9,000 MORE JOBS, BRINGING 2023 TOTAL TO 27,000

Amazon plans to eliminate 9,000 more jobs in the next few weeks, CEO Andy Jassy said in a memo to staff this week.

GAMESTOP LEADS MEME STOCK RALLY IN PANDEMIC TRADE COMEBACK

Meme stocks jumped this week after GameStop, one of the most heavily traded off-brand stocks during the pandemic, posted a surprise profit for the fourth quarter, its first quarterly profit in two years.

NEW 'SHAZAM!' HAS MORE EVERYTHING BUT LESS CHARM

Sequels, by nature, are more. Whatever the original had, just add more, the rule seems to be. Even more words in the title — how often is a sequel’s title shorter than the original?

WILL THE CREDIT SUISSE BANK TAKEOVER CALM FINANCIAL FEARS?

In a bid to ease turmoil in the world financial system, Swiss authorities engineered a plan for the UBS bank to acquire its troubled smaller rival Credit Suisse at a marked-down price.

CRUISE WANTS TO TEST SELF-DRIVING CARS ALL OVER CALIFORNIA

General Motors’ Cruise autonomous vehicle unit asked California for permission to test the cars across the entire state.

THE HOTTEST ELECTRIC CARS TO CHECK OUT IN 2023

Electric vehicles, or EVs, had their best-selling year in 2022. Their market share surpassed 5% according to NHTSA, which is nearly double than 2021.

MICROSOFT ADDS AI TOOLS TO OFFICE APPS LIKE OUTLOOK, WORD

Microsoft is infusing artificial intelligence tools into its suite of office software, including Word, Excel and Outlook emails.

GOOGLE'S ARTIFICIALLY INTELLIGENT 'BARD' SET FOR NEXT STAGE

Google announced Tuesday it's allowing more people to interact with \" Bard,\" the artificially intelligent chatbot the company is building to counter Microsoft's early lead in a pivotal battleground of technology.

THE BITCOIN BOUNCE: WHAT COMES NEXT?

Markets this year are roiling, uncertainty abounds and the U.S. government has had to step in to rescue two large American banks in recent days. So why is bitcoin, considered among the riskiest bets of them all, rising so fast?

Orbital THE SPACE RACE TO CONNECT 2023 PHONES WITH SATELLITES

Satellite-based communications technology is making its way to our phones, and it’s not just for emergency messaging.

IOS 16.4 HINTS AT UPCOMING AIRPODS 4 & NEW CHARGING CASE

Apple has recently rolled out the iOS 16.4 Release Candidate (RC) for developers and beta testers, containing references to the next-generation AirPods 4 and an updated charging case.

WHY TIKTOK'S SECURITY RISKS KEEP RAISING FEARS

TikTok is once again fending off claims that its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, would share user data from its popular video-sharing app with the Chinese government, or push propaganda and misinformation on its behalf.

A 2nd Wave of Layoffs at Meta; 10,000 Jobs Are Cut

Facebook parent Meta is slashing 10,000 jobs, about as many as the social media company announced late last year in its first round of cuts, as uncertainly about the global economy hits the technology sector particularly hard.

BELGIUM BANS TIKTOK FROM GOVERNMENT PHONES AFTER US, EU

Belgium is banning TikTok from government phones over worries about cybersecurity, privacy and misinformation, the country's prime minister said, mirroring recent action by other authorities in Europe and the U.S.

CALIFORNIA COURT RULES FOR UBER, LYFT IN RIDE-HAILING CASE

App-based ride-hailing and delivery companies like Uber and Lyft can continue to treat their California drivers as independent contractors, a state appeals court ruled Monday, allowing the tech giants to bypass other state laws requiring worker protections and benefits.

MONEY: JOB PLUS A SIDE GIG? AVOID THESE MISTAKES

At the beginning of the year, many people have their eyes set on goals.

HYBRIDS: TOYOTA PRIUS VS KIA NIRO

In one of the rare moments of levity in the sinister film, the embattled detective John Luther sits down at a chic bar and tells the bartender it's been a long day (an understatement). \"I would say a long day calls for a martini,\" the bartender says. Luther's response? \"No.\" He'll take some water, and, \"if it makes you happy you can make it fizzy! This was not an accidental moment, \"Luther\" creator Neill Cross has said. Elba even wondered if it was a bit too cheeky. But it's worth remembering that Elba doesn't need Bond. He's already got a moody, tortured bachelor with a talent for hunting bad guys. And Luther belongs exclusively to him. In this outing, written by Cross and directed by Jamie Payne, Detective Chief Inspector (DCI) John Luther finds himself imprisoned for his unconventional methods at work and haunted by the unsolved missing person case that opens the film and sets its macabre tone. His imprisonment and the missing teen are related the work of a wealthy villain David Robey (Andy Serkis) who film introduces to the audience as such in the first few moments. Serkis' character is a kind of gentleman psychopath, with his blown out James Spader in \"Pretty in Pink\" coif and maniacal smile. He's one of those villains for whom chaos, misery and gore are the point. David Robey is methodical, patient and unsparing - he'll even go so far as to befriend the families of his victims after the fact. At the start, the film takes on a kind of David Fincher vibe, with echoes of \"Seven\" and \"Zodiac\" crossed with some of Christopher Nolan's \"The Dark Knight.\" Unfortunately it takes the conceit to such absurd lengths by the end that the premise takes on an unintentional silliness. That's not even counting the brawls between Elba and Serkis, whose sizes could not be more mismatched. But the good news is that it's a pretty fun, tense ride up until that point with some stunning shots of London at night. Elba slips back into Luther like no time has passed, though he has taken on some superhero-adjacent talents here, evident in his escape from jail sequence that is somehow both violent and cartoonish. It's not an easy or straightforward role, but Elba makes it look so. This is a guy who is so devoted to his former job that he'll risk death to break out of prison and get right back to work trying to solve the case, knowing well that he's also being hunted by his replacement, DCI Odette Raine (Cynthia Erivo, not to be trifled with). Odette does not want to collaborate with Luther and even enlists his old boss Martin (Dermot Crowley, a comforting presence) to help figure out how to find him. This resistance starts to get a tad redundant and futile, especially since it's quite obvious that eventually they'll figure out a way to collaborate and perhaps could have saved some lives had they done so earlier. And at times, you just kind of wish Luther could take a vacation - it can be exhausting watching his relentless pursuit, but there's little room for boredom in a movie that never lets its protagonist take a breath. And then of course there's the ludicrous theatrics of Robey's ultimate plan, which hinges on the assumption that would be serial killers and snuff-porn fetishists are everywhere just waiting for a twisted mind to live-stream gruesome murders. As if going by some bad guy checkbook, this \"Saw\"-like game show also takes place in a hidden lair in the snowy north. But even though it may go over the top at the end, Elba keeps you interested. You needn't have watched all five seasons of \"Luther\" to take a chance on \"Luther: The Fallen Sun.\" But there's also a chance that you may find yourself wanting to afterwards. \"Luther: The Fallen Sun,\" a Netflix release, is rated R by the Motion Picture Association for \"disturbing/violent content, language and some sexual material.\" Running time: 129 minutes. Two and a half stars out of four.

IDRIS ELBA RETURNS AS LUTHER IN GRISLY NETFLIX FILM

For anyone holding on to some latent hope that Idris Elba will be the next James Bond, I have some bad news:\" Luther: The Fallen Sun\" puts (another) nail in that very firmly sealed coffin.

INSIDER Q&A-NINTENDO'S BOWSER

With a new theme park attraction opened last month, an upcoming major motion picture and the sequel to a massive hit video game about to be released, everything's coming up Nintendo.

WHAT CAN CHATGPT MAKER'S NEW AI MODEL GPT-4 DO?

The company behind the ChatGPT chatbot has rolled out its latest artificial intelligence model, GPT-4, in the next step for a technology that's caught the world's attention.

SAMSUNG TO INVEST $230 BILLION TO BUILD "MEGA" CHIP CLUSTER

Samsung Electronics said it expects to invest 300 trillion won ($230 billion) over the next 20 years as part of an ambitious South Korean national project to build the world's largest semiconductor manufacturing base near the capital, Seoul.

GOVERNMENT RACES TO REASSURE US THAT BANKING SYSTEM IS SAFE

Depositors withdrew savings and investors broadly sold off bank shares this week as the federal government raced to reassure Americans that the banking system was secure after two bank failures fed fears that more financial institutions could fall.

IS MY MONEY SAFE? WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT BANK FAILURES

\"They were the gold standard, it almost seemed weird if you were in tech and didn't have a Silicon Valley Bank account, Stefan Kalb, CEO of Seattle startup Shelf Engine, said during an interview as he started the process of transferring millions of dollars to other banks. The Biden administration's move guaranteeing all Silicon Valley Bank's deposits above the insured limit of $250,000 per account resulted in a \"palpable sigh of relief\" in Israel, where its booming tech sector is \"connected with an umbilical cord to Silicon Valley,\" said Jon Medved, founder of the Israeli venture capital crowdfunding platform OurCrowd. But the gratitude for the deposit guarantees that will allow thousands of tech startups to continue to pay their workers and other bills was mixed with moments of reflection among entrepreneurs and venture capital partners rattled by Silicon Valley Bank's downfall. The crisis \"has forced every company to reassess their banking arrangements and the companies that they work with,\" said Rajeeb Dey, CEO of London-based startup Learnerbly, a platform for workplace learning. Entrepreneurs who had deposited all their startups' money in Silicon Valley Bank are now realizing it makes more sense to spread their funds across several institutions, with the biggest banks considered safer harbors. Kalb started off Monday by opening an account at the largest bank in the U.S., JP Morgan Chase, which has about $2.4 trillion in deposits. That's 13 times more than the deposits at Silicon Valley Bank, the 16th largest in the U.S. Bank of America is getting some of the money that Electric Era had deposited at Silicon Valley Bank, and the Seattle startup's CEO, Quincy Lee, expects having no difficulty finding other candidates to keep the rest of his company's money as part of its diversification plan. \"Any bank is happy to take a startup's money, Lee said. Even so, there are fears it will be more difficult to finance the inherently risky ideas underlying tech startups that became a specialty of Silicon Valley Bank since its founding over a poker game in 1983, just as the advent of the personal computer and faster microprocessors unleashed more innovation. Silicon Valley quickly established itself as the \"go-to\" spot for venture capitalists looking for financial partners more open to unconventional business proposals than its bigger, more established peers who still didn't have a good grasp of technology. \"They understood startups, they understood venture capital,\" said Leah Ellis, CEO and co-founder of Sublime Systems, a company in Somerville, Massachusetts, commercializing a process to make low-carbon cement. \"They were woven into the fabric of the startup community that I'm part of, so banking with SVB was a no brainer!\" Venture capitalists set up their accounts at Silicon Valley Bank just as the tech industry started its boom and then advised the entrepreneurs that they funded to do the same. That cozy relationship came to an end when the bank disclosed a $1.8 billion loss on low-yielding bonds that were purchased before interest rates began to spike last year, raising alarms among its financially savvy customer base who used the fruits of technology to spread warnings that turned into a calamitous run on deposits. Bob Ackerman, founder and managing director of venture funder AllegisCyber Capital, likened last week's flood of withdrawal demands from Silicon Valley Bank to a self-inflicted wound by \"a circular firing squad\" intent on \"shooting your best friend.\" Many of Silicon Valley Bank's roughly 8,500 employees now find themselves hanging in limbo, too, even though government regulators now overseeing the operations have told them they will be offered jobs at 1.5 times their salaries for 45 days, said Rob McMillan, who had worked there for 32 years. \"We don't know who's going to pay us when, McMillan said. \"I think we all missed a paycheck. We don't know if we have benefits. Even though all of Silicon Valley Bank's depositors are being made whole, its demise is expected to leave a void in the technology sector that may be difficult to fill. In an essay that he posted on his LinkedIn page, prominent venture capitalist Michael Moritz compared Silicon Valley Bank to a \"cherished local market where people behind the counters know the names of their customers, have a ready smile but still charge the going price when they sell a cut of meat!\" Silicon Valley Bank is fading away at a time when startups were already having a tougher go at raising money, with a downturn in technology stock values and a steady rise in interest rates causing venture capitalists to retrench. The bank often helped fill the financial gaps with one of its specialties - loans known as \"venture debt\" because it was woven into the funding provided by its venture capitalist customers. \"There's going to be a lot of great ideas, a lot of great teams that don't get funding because the barriers to entry are too high or because there are not enough people who are willing to invest, said William Lin, an investor in the cybersecurity startup Symmetry Systems and a venture partner at ForgePoint, a venture capital firm. With Silicon Valley Bank gone and venture cap pulling in their reins, Lin expects there will be fewer startups getting money to pursue ideas in the same fields of technology. If that happens, he foresees a winnowing of competition that will eventually make the biggest tech companies even stronger than they already are. \"There's a real day of reckoning coming in the startup world,\" predicted Amit Yoran, CEO of the cybersecurity firm Tenable. That may be true, but entrepreneurs like Lee and Kalb already feel like they had been through an emotional wringer after spending the weekend worrying that all their hard work would go down a drain if they couldn't get their money out of Silicon Valley Bank. \"It was like being stuck inside a doomsday loop,\" Lee said. Even as he focuses on growing Shelf Engine's business of helping grocers managing their food orders, he vowed not to forget \"a very hard lesson.\" \"I obviously now know banks aren't as safe as I used to think they were,\" he said.

SILICON VALLEY BANK'S DEMISE DISRUPTS THE DISRUPTORS IN TECH

Silicon Valley Bank's collapse rattled the technology industry that had been the bank's backbone, leaving shell-shocked entrepreneurs thankful for the government reprieve that saved their money while they mourned the loss of a place that served as a chummy club of innovation.