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With Martin Scorsese’s “The Irishman” expected to battle “Once Upon a Time in… Hollywood” and “1917” for the best picture Oscar in February, all eyes are on the special effects team that made the sprawling crime epic possible. “The Irishman” unfolds over decades, with the 76-year-old Robert De Niro and his co-stars playing their characters from their 30s into retirement age, a feat that’s made the film one of 2019’s most acclaimed movies. It’s all possible through new digital de-aging techniques that in the past year in cinemas have shaved decades from Samuel L. Jackson’s face and turned back the clock to the 1990s for Will Smith. When Monday’s Academy Award nominations are announced, “Captain Marvel” and “Gemini Man” could see their names called along with “The Irishman” in the…

Amazon said it will allow its third-party sellers to start using FedEx’s ground service again after banning them from using it for about a month during the busy holiday shopping season because FedEx purportedly wasn’t delivering on time. Amazon said FedEx is now getting orders delivered on time and sent a letter to sellers telling them they can start using the carrier. FedEx said reinstating its ground service for Amazon sellers is “good news for our mutual customers.” The relationship between Amazon and FedEx has strained recently as the online shopping giant builds its own rival delivery fleet, relying less on UPS, the post office and other carriers. Last month, Amazon.com Inc. said it delivered most of its own packages in the U.S. itself. FedEx severed ties with Amazon last…

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is warning international students that federal immigration officials may visit their work sites to verify that their employment is directly related to their studies. School officials sent a memo to faculty saying the Department of Homeland Security has been making site visits to employers of foreign students in science, technology, engineering and math fields. The school is notifying students separately and telling them what to expect from the visits. MIT spokeswoman Kimberly Allen said the memo was not prompted by any visit to the institute. Immigration officials announced last year they would begin workplace visits for some students participating in the federal Optional Practical Training program. The program allows those with student visas to take temporary jobs related to their academic studies. Students in STEM…

It has been a bad week for robots in the San Francisco Bay Area. A Silicon Valley company that used robots to make its pizzas closed this week, and three coffee shops in downtown San Francisco that used robots as baristas also shuttered. Zume Pizza said it is cutting 172 jobs in Mountain View and eliminating another 80 jobs at its facility in San Francisco. Zume Chief Executive Alex Garden made the announcement in an email to employees, the Mercury News in San Jose reported. The Mountain View startup, which first began delivering pizzas in 2016, said it intends to focus on its food packaging and delivery systems. Garden said former employees will be able to apply for the 100 new positions Zume expects to have in its packaging business.…

Rare Selena Gomez “I just needed to let my old self go,” the 27-year-old Gomez recently told Apple Music, following her tumultuous half-decade since the release of her second solo studio album, Revival. The euphoric follow-up, Rare, reflects the artist’s recovery from health and romantic setbacks. FIVE FACTS: 1. Gomez’s personal struggles in the late 2010s included a one-off relationship with Justin Bieber and suffering a broken artery, which was quickly replaced, when receiving a kidney transplant. 2. “I purged multiple different things, but it was specifically who I was then,” Gomez also told Apple Music, referring to her entry into a treatment center. 3. Rare is Gomez’s third studio album as a solo artist, although she has also released a trio of studio albums as part of the pop-rock…

Citigroup’s fourth-quarter profits rose by 15%, as the banking conglomerate benefited from a boost in trading similar to competitor JPMorgan Chase. The New York-based bank said that it earned a profit of $4.98 billion, or $2.15 per share, compared with a profit of $4.3 billion, or $1.65 per share, in the same period a year earlier. The results topped analysts’ expectations for a profit of $1.81 a share, according to FactSet. Like JPMorgan Chase, which also reported its results this week, Citi saw a boost in profits from its trading operations. Bond trading revenues rose 49% from a year earlier, when a steep downfall in the markets in the fourth quarter took its toll on all banks’ trading desks. In Citi’s consumer group, profits rose 12% from a year earlier,…

Statistics on sports broadcasts give context to what happened. The German Bundesliga and Amazon want to provide a data-based guess on what will occur next. The league announced a deal to make Amazon its official technology provider, a collaboration that will provide statistics for the Bundesliga’s television broadcasts and digital products. The new product will launch when the season resumes after the league’s winter break. Klaus Bürg, Amazon Web Services’ general manager for Germany, Austria and Switzerland, said in an interview he envisions “machine learning and artificial intelligence being applied to historical data” that will lead to a “very high probability of being right in what’s being predicted.” European soccer telecasts have been less immersed in the kind of data often used on U.S. telecasts of the NFL and Major…

British and American officials are meeting as U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government prepares to decide on whether there’s a future for Chinese equipment maker Huawei in the country’s next-generation telecom networks, his spokesman said. U.S. officials responsible for national security and telecommunications were meeting their counterparts in Britain, James Slack told reporters. “The security and resilience of the U.K.’s telecoms network is of paramount importance,” Slack told reporters. “We have strict controls for how Huawei equipment is currently deployed in the U.K. The government is undertaking a comprehensive review to ensure the security and resilience of 5G and fiber in the U.K.” Slack said the government is “continuing to look at the security of the 5G network” and will inform Parliament once a decision is made. The U.S. government…

If you’re still using Microsoft’s Windows 7, your computer might soon be at risk. Microsoft stop providing free security updates for the system, meaning computers using it will be more vulnerable to malware and hacking. Users who want to protect their computers need to upgrade to Windows 10. They may also need to buy new computers because older machines might not be compatible with Windows 10. Tech companies typically phase out older systems after a number of years and focus efforts on updating current versions of software. Windows 7 came out in 2009. Windows 8, which came out in 2012, will have free support end in 2023. Windows 10 starts at $139 for a basic, “Home” version. Microsoft charges $200 for a “Pro” version meant for businesses and individuals who…

While many small manufacturers and retailers believe Amazon is the place to be, Lyris Autran is forgoing the opportunity. Autran wants to keep the prices on her leashes, bowls and other products for dogs competitive. It costs money to sell on Amazon.com — a 15% fee on each sale and additional charges for shipping — and that would force her to raise prices. So she sells solely on her website, Dylan & Rainey. “Our margins are smaller, which makes selling on Amazon cost prohibitive,” says Autran, whose company is based in Gastonia, North Carolina. She also includes dog treats and hand-written notes in her shipments, a personal touch not available on packages Amazon handles. Small business owners selling online must weigh the pros and cons of listing their products on…

President Donald Trump signed a trade agreement Wednesday with China that is expected to boost exports from U.S. farmers and manufacturers and is aimed at lowering tensions in a long-running dispute between the economic powers. Trump said during a White House ceremony that the deal is “righting the wrongs of the past.” He promoted the signing as a way of delivering economic justice for American workers and said, “We mark a sea change in international trade” with the signing. The agreement is being described as “phase one” of a larger negotiation focusing on tensions in the U.S.-China trade relationship. Chinese leader Xi Jinping said in a letter to Trump that the first phase is “good for China, the U.S. and for the whole world.”The letter was read by Beijing’s chief…

Zachariah Mohammed’s living room is filled with stuff he doesn’t own. He pays $200 a month for the sofa, side table, bar cart, dining table and four chairs in his living room. It’s worth it, the 27-year-old New Yorker says. If he needs to move, which he’s done twice in the last 12 months, he won’t need to lug a sofa across the city or worry if it will fit in a new place. The furniture-rental startup, Feather, will swap out items for something else. “We don’t want to be stuck with a giant couch,” says Mohammed, a social media manager at a software company, who lives with his partner and their dog, Remy. Feather, Fernish and other companies aim to rent furniture to millennials who don’t want to commit…

Priyanka Chopra Jonas will star opposite Richard Madden in the U.S. edition of “Citadel,” a drama series to be produced in conjunction with programs from several other countries. “The idea is to create a truly global, action-packed spy series,” Amazon Studios chief Jennifer Salke said. “It’s a totally innovative, multifaceted international approach to storytelling, and we can’t wait to tell you more as it comes together.” Local-language productions are being done in Italy and India, with another announced in Mexico. Amazon called the U.S. version the “mothership” of the project, with production set to begin this summer. Film star Chopra Jonas was in the ABC TV series “Quantico.” Madden starred in the award-winning BBC and Netflix series “Bodyguard.” The other “Citadel” productions will “enhance the experience of engaging with the…

A major U.S. web infrastructure and security company will provide free support to federal election campaigns to help thwart any repeats of the 2016 effort by Russian agents to steal and leak sensitive campaign emails and documents. San Francisco-based Cloudflare said Wednesday it will be providing to eligible campaigns free access to several of its security services, including enhanced protection of firewalls, which defend systems and networks from unauthorized access. Other services include protection and mitigation of any denial-of-service attacks, which can paralyze a network by overwhelming it with data. The effort is being offered in conjunction with Defending Digital Campaigns, a nonprofit group that last year received approval from the Federal Elections Commission to provide free or discounted cybersecurity services to federal candidate committees and national party committees. To…

If Major League Baseball really wants to stop its teams from electronically stealing signs, it might consider fighting technology with more technology. In a sport that’s increasingly driven by analytics and advancements, the majority of signs between players and coaches are still transmitted by low-tech hand signals that have been used for decades. Those hand signals are easily captured by the loads of video equipment around MLB stadiums that are used for television, replays and all kinds of stat tracking. All that technology can be — and obviously has been — used for cheating. The Houston Astros were hit with stiff punishment on Monday after an MLB investigation found the team used electronics to steal signs during the franchise’s run to the 2017 World Series title and again in the…

The National Security Agency has discovered a major security flaw in Microsoft’s Windows 10 operating system that could let hackers intercept seemingly secure communications. But rather than exploit the flaw for its own intelligence needs, the NSA tipped off Microsoft so that it can fix the system for everyone. Microsoft released a free software patch to fix the flaw and credited the intelligence agency for discovering it. The company said it has not seen any evidence that hackers have used the technique. Amit Yoran, CEO of security firm Tenable, said it is “exceptionally rare if not unprecedented” for the U.S. government to share its discovery of such a critical vulnerability with a company. Yoran, who was a founding director of the Department of Homeland Security’s computer emergency readiness team, urged…

IoT is changing the way we live. Virtually every aspect of our lives has been digitized; from turning on our lights before we arrive home to prescribing medication without a doctor. As we look to automate and make our lives more agile, computerized and efficient, where do we go next? Let’s delve deeper into the evolution of IoT, and its next-generation developments... ENHANCED COMMUNICATIONS Perhaps one of the most exciting developments in the world of IoT is data, with 5G coming in to offer instant communications for data packages of any size, with just 0.004 latency. As countries begin to roll out their 5G technology to consumers, governments, and businesses, we can expect to see incredible new innovations changing the way we communicate and work. Current 4G offers data speeds…

Once a hidden and under-the-radar topic, privacy got more attention at the CES gadget show in Las Vegas last week. Startups now volunteer information about how they’re securing your data and protecting your privacy when you use their heart rate monitor or cuddly robot. Roybi, an alien-looking robot that teaches kids languages and other skills, has a camera with facial recognition that can remember children and guess whether the kid was excited or sad after a lesson. Roybi says it uses that information to make changes to its lessons. But the $199 robot also comes with a sticker, so parents can block the camera if they want. “We want to make sure we give people choices,” said CEO and founder Elnaz Sarraf, who said parents questioned the lens. “When it…

Terminator: Dark Fate Judgment Day might have been averted, but the fight isn’t over for Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton). In 2020, a new machine from the future, Rev-9 (Gabriel Luna), is set to eliminate Dani Ramos (Natalia Reyes) – unless Connor, augmented soldier Grace (Mackenzie Davis) and the ageing T-800 Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger) can stop it. FIVE FACTS: 1. This is the first Terminator film over which franchise creator James Cameron has had creative control since Terminator 2: Judgment Day in 1991. 2. However, this time around, Cameron is a producer rather than director, with that role now taken by Deadpool director Tim Miller. 3. The plot of Dark Fate retcons the stories of the franchise’s previous three films as well as the TV series Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.…

A startup heavily backed by Hollywood is wagering that you’re ready to set aside YouTube and TikTok to watch star-studded short videos on your phone — for a price. The company behind this billion-dollar bet is Quibi (KWIH-bee), which is preparing to offer movies, shows and other short form video designed for viewing in short bursts on mobile devices. It’s an enormous gamble, especially considering that several earlier efforts in mobile entertainment — most notably Verizon’s ill-fated Go90 service — fell flat. Founded by former Disney studios chief and DreamWorks co-founder Jeffrey Katzenberg and helmed by former Hewlett Packard Enterprise CEO Meg Whitman, Quibi is heavy on big ideas and Hollywood muscle. It has backing from all the major movie studios and entertainment companies, $1 billion invested in original programming…

Two global pioneers of modern gene-editing technology were awarded Israel’s prestigious Wolf Prize in medicine. The Wolf Foundation said it was recognizing Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier for their work in developing the gene-editing tool CRISPR. Their research has the potential to “revolutionize medicine by paving the way to finding new forms of treatment for currently incurable diseases,” the foundation said. Gene editing is a way to permanently change DNA to attack the root causes of a gene-based disease. It can serve a wide variety of other uses too — from attacking malaria in mosquitoes to breeding hardier crops. CRISPR is a tool that seeks out a precise piece of DNA inside living cells and slices it, allowing scientists to turn genes on or off, repair or replace them. It’s…

Dating apps including Grindr, OkCupid and Tinder leak personal information to advertising tech companies in possible violation of European data privacy laws, a Norwegian consumer group said in a report this week. The Norwegian Consumer Council said it found “serious privacy infringements” in its analysis of how shadowy online ad companies track and profile smartphone users. The council, a government-funded nonprofit group, commissioned cybersecurity company Mnemonic to study 10 Android mobile apps. It found that the apps sent user data to at least 135 different third party services involved in advertising or behavioral profiling. “The situation is completely out of control,” the council said, urging European regulators to enforce the continent’s strict General Data Privacy Regulation, or GDPR. It said the majority of the apps did not present users with…