Techlife News #390

Gov. Tony Evers said that he wants to renegotiate Wisconsin’s nearly $3 billion contract with Foxconn Technology Group, saying it’s “unrealistic” to think the company will employ 13,000 people as originally promised. Evers told reporters that the state was working with Taiwan-based Foxconn to look at revising the original contract for the proposed facility to build liquid crystal display panels because it “deals with a situation that no longer exists.” President Donald Trump has touted the Foxconn project in Wisconsin as a sign of the return of manufacturing to the United States. It would be Foxconn’s first manufacturing facility outside Asia, but skeptics have questioned the project that was announced more than a year ago. Under terms of the original deal struck by Evers’ predecessor Gov. Scott Walker, Foxconn could get more…

Some of Samsung’s new, almost $2,000 folding phones appear to be breaking after just a couple of days. Journalists who received the phones to review before the public launch said the Galaxy Fold screen started flickering and turning black before completely fizzling out. Two journalists said they removed a thin, protective layer from the screens that they thought was supposed to come off, but was meant to stay. But reporters from The Verge and CNBC said they left that layer on and their screens still broke. A CNBC video shows the left side of the inside screen intermittently flashing, and the right side as unresponsive. The phone was “completely unusable” after two days, CNBC reporter Todd Haselton wrote . The long-anticipated folding phone is about the size of a standard smartphone when folded, but can…

Pinterest is pricing its shares at $19 for its initial public offering Thursday, putting it on track to raise more than $1.4 billion. The digital scrapbooking and image search site said last week it expected to sell 75 million shares at a price between $15 and $17 each. The company will begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol PINS. Pinterest had revenue of $756 million last year and a loss of $63 million. It has more than 250 million monthly users. Pinterest and Zoom, also scheduled to go public Thursday, are the first tech companies to list their stock since the highly anticipated Lyft debut. Lyft shares are down more than 30 percent from their high in late March.…

An arsenal of new technology is being put to the test fighting floods this year as rivers inundate towns and farm fields across the central United States. Drones, supercomputers and sonar that scans deep under water are helping to maintain flood control projects and predict just where rivers will roar out of their banks. Together, these tools are putting detailed information to use in real time, enabling emergency managers and people at risk to make decisions that can save lives and property, said Kristie Franz, associate professor of geological and atmospheric sciences at Iowa State University. The cost of this technology is coming down even as disaster recovery becomes more expensive, so “anything we can do to reduce the costs of these floods and natural hazards is worth it,”she said. “Of course, loss…

A track outside St. Louis that hosts IndyCar, NASCAR and NHRA events is getting not only a new name, but a promise to become a proving ground for tech innovations aimed at enhancing the fan experience. Gateway Motorsports Park in Madison, Illinois, will be renamed World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway. Terms of the naming rights agreement announced this week were not disclosed. Suburban St. Louis-based World Wide Technology has some 5,000 employees. Founder and chairman David Steward said he envisions using the partnership to develop innovative experiences for fans. “To be able to create a platform that’s innovative and different that incorporates technology you couldn’t incorporate before is an interesting and unique opportunity,” Steward said. One example he suggested was finding a way to be able to allow fans at a race to…

Google said it will start giving European Union smartphone users a choice of browsers and search apps on its Android operating system, in changes designed to comply with an EU antitrust ruling. Following an Android update, users will be shown two new screens giving them the new options, Google product management director Paul Gennai said in a blog post . The EU’s executive Commission slapped the Silicon Valley giant with a record 4.34 billion euro (then $5 billion) antitrust fine in July after finding that it abused the dominance of Android by forcing handset and tablet makers to install Google apps, reducing consumer choice. The commission had ordered Google to come up with a remedy or face further fines. The company, which is appealing the ruling, said the changes are being rolled out…