Category: News and Views

Manhattan Renters Seeking Deals Send Leasing to a Record for May | Bloomberg

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It’s a renter’s market in New York City, and apartment-seekers jumped in last month to get themselves a deal.

In Manhattan, the number of newly signed leases climbed 17 percent in May from a year earlier to 5,969, the biggest total for the month in nine years of record-keeping, according to a report Thursday by appraiser Miller Samuel Inc. and brokerage Douglas Elliman Real Estate. In Brooklyn, new apartment contracts surged 23 percent to 1,460, also the biggest total for the month in data going back to 2008.

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New Tesla Model 3 orders unlikely to ship before end of 2018 | CNN Money

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If you haven’t already pre-ordered the Tesla Model 3, don’t expect to own the car anytime this year — or next.

“This will be a long wait,” Tesla (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk said at the company’s annual shareholder conference on Tuesday. “I’m guessing if you put a deposit down now, it’s probably end of next year before you get it.”

Musk’s estimate suggests an even greater backlog than expected. On Tesla’s website, the delivery estimate for new Model 3 reservations is “mid 2018 or later.”

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Apple announces the HomePod | TechCrunch

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Apple’s long-rumored Amazon Echo competitor is real. It’s called the HomePod (yes, I know). “We want to reinvent home music,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said at the company’s WWDC keynote. The Apple Speaker is focused on music first, not Siri.

Apple’s SVP of Global Marketing Phil Schiller said Sonos aren’t smart speakers and Amazon Echos aren’t good speakers. So Apple wants to combine the best of both worlds. It’s a smart marketing strategy. HomePod is shipping later this year — it’s not quite ready for prime time.

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Harvard bars students for posting ‘obscene memes’ | BBC News

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“Obscene” memes posted on a private Facebook page have cost 10 students their place at Harvard, reports the college’s newspaper.

The students posted messages joking about child abuse, sexual assault, paedophilia and the Holocaust.

Members of the group also directed several racial slurs at minorities, said the report.

Free speech advocates criticised Harvard’s actions saying the punishment was “draconian”.

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How Ottawa is Attracting Tech Talent | The Startup Magazine

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Recent reports show Ottawa as the most attractive tech hub in Canada with the best cost of living and second best average salary. Located in the same timezone as New York and Boston, it is increasingly becoming a promising city for job-seeking tech talent looking north.

Alongside its affordable living conditions, both local agencies and the government play a key role in the growth of its tech scene. A lead economic development agency in Canada’s capital, Invest Ottawa, has recently launched its Work in Ottawa campaign. The international campaign aims to attract global tech talent to the city, highlighting profitable opportunities to maintain a good lifestyle and promising career. This website-based strategy aims to help Canadian tech companies attract and retain the top talent needed to succeed and grow. The campaign also boasts a burgeoning database of North American talent that is available to local employers who participate in the campaign.

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How a Supreme Court Ruling on Printer Ink Bolsters Your Digital Rights | WIRED

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THERE’S A REASON everyone hates printers. They break, jam, and always run out of cyan ink—which, inexplicably, also breaks them. Even when they work, toner costs so much you have to give up avocado toast for a month to buy more. As Matthew Inman, one of the great poets of his time, famously said: “Either printer ink is made from unicorn blood or we’re all getting screwed.”

Impression Products wanted to make toner a bit cheaper by refilling Lexmark printer cartridges. Lexmark of course hated that and sued. The fight dragged on for years, and made it all the way to the US Supreme Court. This week, the highest court in the land ruled against Lexmark. You may consider this an insignificant tussle over printer toner, but this important ruling clears the way for small businesses to fix your stuff—even without the manufacturer’s permission.

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Uber’s Driverless Truck Unit Is Under Government Investigation Following Unapproved Tests | Forbes

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California regulators are preparing to conduct a site inspection of the San Francisco headquarters of Uber’s autonomous truck unit, formerly known as Otto, to determine whether the company broke state law when it tested driverless trucks on public highways without permission.

The unscheduled visit, which officials from the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles are coordinating with the California Highway Patrol, is to “see the capabilities of Otto’s trucks in person,” a DMV spokeswoman said. The inspection comes months after the publication of an internal Otto document from 2016 detailing the company’s testing procedures for its self-driving semi-trucks.

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Volvo Wagon Fanatics Prepare for the New V90 Station Wagon | Bloomberg

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Picture a Volvo.

You’re imagining a boxy, full-size station wagon, right? Well, that classic shape has long been gone, but it’s about to make a modern comeback.

Back in the 1980s and ’90s, Volvo was America’s top-selling European import brand—and the first to surpass the milestone 100,000 annual sales figure. At a time when domestic manufacturers were beginning to abandon the traditional wagon market, wagons routinely made up one-third of Volvo’s sales, more so in such top markets as the Northeast or the coastal West.

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Global retirement ‘timebomb’: Why you’ll have to work past 70 | CNN Money

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Hoping to retire before you turn 70? Too bad.

The world’s richest countries need to drastically hike their retirement ages in order to prevent pension systems from collapsing, according to the World Economic Forum.

Working until at least 70 should become the norm by 2050, the group recommends in a new report. The average retirement age is currently 65 for men in advanced economies and 63 for women.

Here’s the problem: People are living longer than ever, but the average retirement age has remained static. Pension funds have been unable to keep pace.

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