AppleMagazine #180

Cord-nevers, you’re in luck. No more need to beg, borrow or steal your parents’ cable password to keep up with each episode of “Mad Men” or “Game of Thrones.” When the hit shows return in the next few days, they will be available for streaming online with no cable or satellite subscription. Here’s where you can watch. “MAD MEN” The show is returning to AMC on Sunday to start its final seven-episode run. The channel is available through Dish’s $20-a-month Sling TV streaming service and Sony’s $50-a-month PlayStation Vue. You can sign up for Sling TV at sling.com and watch through a number of apps. Sony’s service requires a PlayStation 3 or 4 and limits viewing to your home. (Plus, you need to live in New York, Chicago or Philadelphia…

Facebook and its founder must release documents and electronic correspondence to a defense lawyer whose client has fled from criminal charges that he falsely claimed a majority ownership in the social media giant, a federal judge said Friday. U.S. District Judge Vernon Broderick ordered Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg to relinquish documents by Monday that were requested by Paul Ceglia’s lawyer, Robert Ross Fogg. The judge said he received a letter Thursday from lawyers for Facebook Inc. and Zuckerberg asking that an order he issued earlier in the week to promptly turn over requested documents be suspended until Ceglia is caught. Documents requested include all electronic communications Zuckerberg had about a Ceglia contract during an 18-month stretch beginning in 2003. With a May 4 trial approaching, Ceglia cut off his electronic…

The last word in shopping luxury BUYERS OF $17,000 TIMEPIECE TO BE TREATED LIKE ROYALTY You might imagine that spending a bit more of your hard-earned money on a new watch would entitle you to a few perks above those who go for the budget option. What about when you spend as much as $17,000 on that timepiece, and you're purchasing from nothing less than the world's most valuable company? That's the question that prospective Apple Watch Edition buyers are asking themselves - and they're in for a real treat. Of course, it could be argued that those opting for the range-topping version of the Cupertino giant's hugely eagerly-awaited watch have more than enough fabulous features to get excited about. This is the variant, after all, with cases crafted from custom…

In its five short years of life, Pinterest has become the’ place where brides-to-be create wish boards of wedding china photos and do-it-yourself home renovators bookmark shiny turquoise tiles for bathrooms. It’s where people share ideas and ingenuity and get creatively inspired. And it’s fueled a new way of searching for items that’s even stolen traffic from tech giant Google. The San Francisco-based venture capital darling was recently valued at $11 billion. While its core audience has always been female, Pinterest says its popularity is growing faster than ever among men. It is winning in the all-important social-mobile space - the vast majority of “pinners” connect from mobile devices - and is enjoying a healthy expansion overseas. As Pinterest celebrates its fifth birthday this week - hopefully with perfect bacon…

Jeri Vargas put her elderly mother on the "Do Not Call" list years ago. So why is the 88-year-old woman with Alzheimer's disease still getting several recorded phone calls a day pitching her everything from vacation cruises to medical alert devices and fire extinguishers? The Federal Communications Commission has been asked to consider the question of whether phone companies could do more to stop the onslaught of "robocalls," the automated phone calls favored by scammers. Since the convergence of Internet and phone lines, it's become easy to blast out hundreds of thousands of calls in a matter of minutes to see who takes the bait. The question of whether these calls can be blocked has never been more pressing than around tax season, when many pretend to come from the…

Media giant Viacom Inc. on Monday announced a round of layoffs and restructuring that will result in it booking $785 million in special expenses in its recently ended quarter. A Viacom spokesman declined to say how many people would be laid off. The New York company said it will write-down underperforming TV shows and abandon some shows that it bought, as well as make severance payments. Among shows creating the need for the accounting charge are reality programs such as “The Real World” that have lost value as reruns. The restructuring comes amid the departure this month of longtime executive Van Toffler, president of Viacom’s Music & Logo Group, who is launching a content-creation business. Channels under his purview, such as MTV, Logo, VH1 and CMT, are being reorganized under…